It just goes on and on and on and on.......like a one note droning sample of "sack the board, build a bonfire, Bellotti out, we've had enough, scum scum scum scum" mixed by The Aphex twin and played indefinitely until Chartwell move in, tear off the record and throw it into a skip never to be heard again.There is almost nothing more to write about what is happening at The Albion. Everyone now knows the facts about Archer and Bellotti, not just down here but nationally as well. The boycott of the Mansfield game leading to the subsequent forced entry onto the East terrace by a thousand fans to watch three quarters of the match and inspire Stuart Storer and Jeff Minton onto a 1-1 draw was extraordinary, and to see fans reclaiming the section of terracing cordoned off in front of the directors box (the area of which seems to get wider every week) and then the directors box itself, felt like a revolutionary act. The whole mood was summed up for me by the sight of a fairly young girl and what looked like her mother, walking calmly across the pitch at half time to take their rightful place in the West stand. Not quite the image of the North Stand thugs and troublemakers that Bellotti would have us all be.
The team continue to be appalling with little flashes of inspiration. Besides becoming the club where Hampshire players come to die, some of Case's tactics are baffling. Substituting MacDonald when he seemed like one of our best players, leaving out Minton for the Carlisle game, playing Mundee in a different position every week, playing Storer as an out and out striker instead of a winger.... I'm beginning to wonder if Michael Knighton has seen something we haven't and the whole situation is an X-Files style conspiracy with Bellotti and Archer as aliens sent from another planet to destroy football as we know it, using Brighton as their first club and taking over Case's brain so that he aids them in their plans. Lookout for Mulder and Scully lurking around the end of Newtown Road sooner than you think.
The mood is turning very nasty and there is a definite air of underlying menace at all the home games. The Goldstone is almost becoming a no go area for Bellotti and certainly at the Carlisle game you got the feeling that had he not left when he did, some of the North Stand would have stormed into the West Stand to get to him.
The whole predicament is appalling with no sign of any change in the air and the FA just seeming to sit impotent on the sidelines doing nothing to save our club while they get on with their real job of ripping people off by bringing out new England kits just before Christmas. Consoling myself with Juventus giving Man United a lesson in defending, I did manage to catch Tricky and Stereolab after tanking up on free gins at The Punter awards last month. Both were excellent, although I do wonder about the merits of playing a set entirely in the dark. (Tricky) I remember seeing Public Image in the Jah Wobble days and John Lydon did the whole set with his back to the audience, but I recall thinking that was very punk rock at the time, so maybe I'm just getting old.
John Cooper Clarke spared me from the joys of the Sudbury town replay so by the time you read this I'll have seen you all on the march in London before the Fulham game, or maybe not, does anyone who reads this actually watch the Albion anyway?
I'm off to Barcelona for New Years Eve, (mmm luvvy) so may your festive activities be whatever you want them to be and please Santa can I have a new club owner and chief executive for Christmas...?
Ideal Christmas party, Skint records doing the music, John Dowie telling the nativity story, Terre`a Terre doing the food, and Brian Behan as Father Christmas....happy new year.
Sunny Brighton
Steve's Review of 1995
"Colin" in London's BurningSteve's "Hyper" column:
(May 1996)
(June 1996)
(July 1996)
(Sept 1996)
(Oct 1996)