Monday 16th March 2015 @7pm
Barclays U21 Premier League Division 2
BRIGHTON & HA U21 3-0 NEWCASTLE UNITED U21
Amex Stadium, Village Way, Falmer.
Admission: £5 + £1.50 processing fee
Programme: none. Team sheet provided
Attendance: c450-500
Refreshments: Harvey’s Best Bitter, £3. Bovril, £2.10.
A rare weekday outing as my Mrs and youngest were going to
the Brighton Centre and my eldest and Uni friend wanted to go to “Crèmes” café and
generally doss in the City for the evening, so I volunteered driving duties and
found this Under 21 fixture. There was
ample free parking at the Stadium but the only way to get in was to go to the
North stand box office and queue for a ticket.
Entry was advertised as a fiver but the joys of modern technology meant
a bar coded ticket is needed to scan at the only open turnstile in the West
Stand. This modern joy cost an extra
£1.50 even with cash and asked for purchase history to update the
database. Each transaction took 3-4
minutes so lucky it was a small attendance.
I took it in a normal silent British way but the Geordie in front
insisted on a 5 minute argument that it only costs £3 at home and no extra
charges. He had a point.
My previous visit was in August 2011 against Peterborough
and in this evening game the stadium is aesthetically lit up and pleasing on
the eye, one of the better new build structures since the Taylor report. The spare capacity since my first visit has
now been filled in with seats and in this sparse crowd all situated in a
section of the lower west stand a good view can be gleaned of the overall
structure. Unfortunately there were no award winning meat pies on sale but the
Bitter was on offer probably because there is no further 1st team game
until Easter. All other alcohol is £4.10 upwards.
The game was played in the right manner with good passing
and movement, but without as much diving around or crunching tackles. It reminded me of a game on 3G. Brighton were
by far the better side and the Newcastle youngsters are coached by a Mr P
Beardsley! All the goals came in the
first half. On 10 minutes a free kick on the right side was curled in left
footed by Jesse Starkey onto the head of centre half Pappoe to direct into the
net. A near carbon copy for the 2nd
goal by both players, this time a free kick near the corner flag but with the
same result. A defensive short back pass was pounced on by no9 Rob Dean to run
unchallenged and slot the ball beyond the advancing keeper. The second half as dominated by Brighton and
they hit the post near the end. The best thing I recall from the away side is to
name and shame the no4 who sported a chicken haircut. Short black hair with a
yellow dyed chicken barnet. Macaulay Gillesphey ran about midfield like a
headless version though.
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