Keeper Gomes’s Gross error allows Seagulls
SO RARE had scoring a goal become for Brighton that when Pascal Gross’ shot sneaked under Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, Mathew Ryan simply could not resist.
The Seagulls stopper sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate with his team-mates as they secured their first Premier League home win since September.
Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager, said he would have taken being 12th at Christmas. ‘Morale has never been low here,’ he said. ‘I have a group of players that knew it would be a difficult season. The second half of the season will not get any easier.’
As for Watford, the good news is they finished with 11 men on the pitch for the first time in four top-flight games.
No side had ever managed to receive red cards in four successive fixtures. Thankfully for Watford, referee Paul Tierney kept his cards in his pocket. The bad news for Watford is that they did very little to avoid making it six games without a win.
After 19 games last season, Walter Mazzarri’s Watford had won six, drawn four and lost nine. They have an identical record under Marco Silva at the season’s halfway mark.
‘It is a bad run,’ Silva said. ‘We lost the game because we did not perform well. It was not a good game to see. Not a lot of quality. They score one goal, a chance.
‘I believe, I hope, I’m sure we can come together to change this situation.’
With Brighton’s influential defender Shane Duffy suspended, Connor Goldson was making his Premier League debut – only nine months after undergoing heart surgery.
Goldson, then 24, feared his career was over when routine screening revealed a swollen aorta, requiring an operation in March that left a six-inch scar on his chest.
He put in a man-of-thematch performance here.
Brighton were on top in the first half and came closest to scoring after 15 minutes, when Tomer Hemed burst