Newcastle 0 Brighton 2, FA Cup, 1986, remembered

Brighton fans of my age (49) will fondly remember Albion's incredible cup run of 1983  which took us all the way to Wembley.   The first victory in that remarkable year was a 1- 0 triumph in a midweek replay at Newcastle's St James Park.  In 2012 and 2013, Albion beat Newcastle again in the same competition.  It would seem that the Seagulls have some kind of hoodoo over the Magpies when it comes to the FA Cup. 

In 1986, Albion were also drawn against Newcastle in the third round of the competition.  Then as now, Newcastle were in the top flight and Albion were in the upper half of the second tier of English football.  Newcastle could boast players of the calibre of Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne.  Albion's outstanding player at that time was Dean Saunders.

The game was played on a very cold Saturday, 4th January.  Snow lay on the ground and I feared a postponement as I made the long journey up north to Tyneside.   Fortunately, my fears were misplaced and the game kicked off as scheduled.  Albion did not have a large following that day but the fans were in good voice and soon they had every reason to be happy with their team's performance.

The opening goal was netted in the first half from short range by Eric Young. The photograph above was taken shortly after the goal was scored.  For most of the remainder of the match, Newcastle seemed to be constantly besieging the Brighton goal.  I lost count of the number of corners that Newcastle won.  Nevertheless, Brighton seemed to be coping well with the pressure and after a while I began to think that the Seagulls would return to Sussex with a win.  This belief was confirmed near the end of the game when Dean Saunders collected the ball on the left side and beat the goalkeeper with a fine effort from outside of the penalty area.  The last few minutes of the game were played out without any serious scares and the final whistle was greeted by Albion's players and fans with jubilation.

The win at Newcastle was the launching pad for a fine cup run. Albion played the away cup games in an all red "lucky" strip that season.  Hull were dispatched 3-2 in an exciting game at Boothferry Park in the 4th round with Terry Connor bagging a brace and Dean Saunders scoring Albion's other goal.  The 5th round match at Peterborough was another game played in the snow.  A 2-2 draw was fought out in abysmal conditions and the Seagulls triumphed 2-1 in the replay at the Goldstone.  The end came in the quarter final at home against Southampton.  It was sad that such a great run should come to an end against one of the old enemies but I still have happy memories of that spring when for a while it looked that the Seagulls could repeat the heroics of '83 and possibly even go one step further.