What can Brighton acheive this year?

By Cian Duffy
August 9 2003

Just a prediction of how Brighton might do back in the first division, with Coppell at the helm at the start of the season for the first time.

Or: Can Brighton return to Division 1?

As you almost certainly know (sorry to shock you if you didn't :-)), Brighton were returned to Division 2 by one goal on goal difference.And over the summer a number of squad changes occured, including the sale of Zamora to Tottenham and the return of Graham Barrett to Arsenal, a number of players have been bought or obtained on long loans. And while a match against a clearly weakened Oldham Athletic isn't nessacerily the best indicator, it is clear two of these, Darius Henderson and ??, are capable of scoring goals.

There are a number of positive points to note about Brighton's chances. The vast majority of the team have played and suceeded at this level, and the upturn in form at the end of the last year shows they were capable of suceeding in Division 1 as well with the right man at the helm. Although some squad members are gone, it is clear from previous results that while Zamora was an excellent striker, he was not nessacerily required for the team to do well, and the same can be said of the other players.

So can Brighton win the league this year? Not nessacerily, but there is the chance that it might happen. Dick Knight may get to indugle his silverware fetish yet again :-p. However, even if the title slips from the teams grasp, there is still a high chance that they may manage to get automatic promotion or at least a play off place. Although nothing is sure in the world of Nationwide League football.

Feel free to post your opinions of where the team will finish in the forum.

On a different note, if anyone feels like writing for the site, please leave a message in the forum or please e-mail me at duffycian@eircom.net. Any type of Albion related writing from previews to match reports to player analysis to plain old rants are suitable, and if good enough, e.g readable and clean, will be published. Anything to stop the public having to read my 30 second previews!