Brighton and Hove Albion

vs Swansea City

03 / 05 / 08

Page 1 / 2

With the mighty swans now officially confirmed as Champions of League One, post Leeds debacle, a trip play a team who could neither move up or down the table whatever the result, sounds like a wasted trip... However the very clever powers that be decided that today would be the day they present the League One trophy...

 

So down to sunny Brighton we went, all 900+ of us Swans who were lucky enough to collect enough vouchers from the sunday papers (or something like that) and win a ticket...

 

An interesting day out, full of homophobic comments, general mick-taking, and a slightly farcical trophy presentation...

 

Oh, and a football match...

 

Just in case you didn't think we went...

Just in case you didn't believe the 1st picture... Not trying to portray a stereotype... Honest...

We arrived around half 12 to make sure we got a good parking space... However EVERY single road within a 2 mile radius was not available for match parking, so we were directed to a "park and ride" which was free with a match ticket... I say park and ride - we were directed to a local country lane which was closed for the match, with the cars being parked against the verge...

This was greeted with much hilarity at first, but gradually seemed to make more sense... After all, it was cheaper than buying a plot of land that would sit dormant in between matches, and with a blockade at each end of the lane would make it easy to police...

This is the away end of the Withdean Stadium... Oh, and some random cheerleaders who just happened to get in the foreground of my picture... No idea how that happened.....................

This was the beer garden of the pup next to the ground... Were it not for the strategically placed signs this would have been a much cheaper place to watch the game from! Oh, and the kid in the Swans away kit looked remarkably like a young Bauza...

"Mr Anderson, what are you doing here..........."

The expression on the face of this steward cracks me up! I'm sure I am allowed to take pics of the players warming up, but his expression makes me think otherwise......

I *think* this is the pitch... Bit hard to see from this distance... My sources tell me those aren't actually ants on the grass, but players warming up... Not that we were far from the pitch here...

The away "stand", with the changing rooms in the background... And no, NOT the big green and well, very light green striped building, but the temporary white cabin in front, with the dark green roof...

The Brighton equivalent of the East Stand...

The Brighton players form a Guard of Honour for the Champions

Martinez gets a warm reception from the away fans, and in turn applauds us...

Due to the distance of our stand from the pitch, I'm afraid that there are not many pictures of the match... Those that are here are difficult to work out what was happening... This appears to be Dorus De Vries taking a kick under pressure from a Brighton player... I think...

Half time, 0-0... Quite a few good moves... Brighton even had the ball in our net once, but it was ruled out for a reason we couldn't tell...

Second half is much the same as the first... A few decent moves from both teams, but in general a much more dominating performance from the Swans...

An attacking run from Painter...

Not long after this we scored... Excellent work from MacDonald on the right wing to cross to the normally anonymous Brandy to tap in for the winner...

 

Click next for more pictures...