Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Brighton In A Dilemma For Saints Visit.
Monday, 18th Mar 2019 10:09

Brighton battled back from two goals down to beat Millwall and reach the FA Cup semi finals, but will this affect their only game between now and the semi final against Manchester City.

Brighton are obviously elated about reaching the FA Cup semi finals and a Wembley visit, but their dilemma is they are still on the fringes of the relegation battle and their only game between now and the semi is hosting Saints on 30th April with the trip to Wembley for them being the following weekend.

Tat means that when Saints travel to the Amex hopefully Brighton's mind will be elsewhere, certainly it will be hard for the players to concentrate knowing that picking up an injury could ruin their hopes of perhaps the biggest game of their life at Wembley a week later.

For the Seagull's a game with so much at stake is not ideal preparation for arguably their biggest game since they reached the FA Cup final itself in 1983, they now that defeat would see Saints on equal points with them and they could be dragged right into the mire.

Ironically Saints themselves had a similar position last year, on this very day a year ago we beat Wigan to reach the semi's, we hoped that it might spur a revival, but the opposite was the case, we had three straight Premier League defeats followed by a draw at Leicester.

This saw us drop from 4th from bottom and a point clear of relegation into the relegation zone and although we had a game in hand we were 3 points adrift of safety.

Brighton do not have so many games to play as us, but sides in semi finals usually lose focus on the League a little and that is a worry for the Seagull's, if they take their foot off the gas for this one then they could be in trouble.

They are not in great form as it is, they struggled to beat Millwall and only two back to back league wins has kept them clear of the relegation zone, they would much prefer to have at least three more points under their belt than be in this position looking over their shoulders.

A defeat to Saints would leave them in a precarious position and what could be their greatest weekend in almost 40 years could turn out to be a nightmare if they lost to Manchester City a week later and then found Cardiff, Burnley and ourselves pulling a few victories out of the bag in the meantime.

So their dilemma is do they sit back against us and look for a point and ready to roll the following week, or do they try and play as normal which hasn't exactly served them well over the past three months in the League.

The pressure is on Brighton on the 30th at the Amex, hoepfully Saints can take advantage.

Photo: Action Images



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.



wessexman added 10:17 - Mar 18
We should not worry about Brighton's preparations. We should concentrate on ourselves. It is easier said than done but winning games will get us out of trouble. Talking about it won't.
6

SanMarco added 10:25 - Mar 18
wessexman is right - let's play well and the rest will look after itself. Brighton like scoring goals from balls hoofed into the box - defend those and we should be fine.
3

underweststand added 12:13 - Mar 18
Hughton is a good a manager and knows that getting past a SF is their only chance of glory.

I don't expect him to rest half the team, but he might well try to play safe and give one or two the day off.....just as long as one of them is Glenn Murray, I don't mind.
0

A1079 added 13:01 - Mar 18
I am surprised we write articles like this. We all know it does not work like that and how many times have his forum and fans etc gone into a game thinking that because a club may have it's eyes on another competition or has lots of injuries or key players gone missing, all we think we have to do is just turn up. It rarely works out like that. Brighton are not going to risk staying in the PL over a semi-final place, if for no other reason, the financial implications of falling out of the PL. It was only the other week that this forum was gloating over Cardiff losing a key player to injury - they won their next game! I recall Burnley and West Ham coming to SMS racked with injuries and we failed to beat them

We just need to make sure that all of our team get it and are ready and make sure they battle right to the end, irrespective of what team Brighton put out and their approach.
0

KriSaint added 23:08 - Mar 18
It´s all down to how good Chris Hughton will be at handling his team and the situation his team is in - with an important game vs us coming up the week before their FA cup semifinal.
I am sure, Hughton will rate the game against us as MORE important than the FA cup semi, and there is NO doubt in my mind, that he will put out his strongest team against us. Of course he will!
1


You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 31 bloggers

Knees-up Mother Brown #22 by wessex_exile
Knees-up Mother Brown #18 by wessex_exile

Southampton Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© FansNetwork 2024