Little by little I am visiting other places in the UK besides London. Believe it or not, Brighton was only the 3rd non-London location that I’d visited… but we’re not even going to see much of the city on this trip (we’ll come back for that soon). Today, we’re going to continue coverage of the European football/soccer circuit with an English Premier League match in Brighton. The match is Brighton & Hove Albion (a.k.a “Brighton”) v. Wolverhampton Wanderers (a.k.a. “Wolves). Here’s exactly where this match took place: Brighton’s AmEx Stadium, also known by its non-sponsorship name, Falmer Stadium.
This was actually an easy day trip from London, as the train to Brighton is less than 2 hours. We grabbed a couple of coffees for the journey and quickly found ourselves watching the south of England whiz by out the window. When we arrived in Brighton, it was dreadfully gray and a dismal cold rain was descending upon the area. Not optimal. But we’d given ourselves a tiny buffer to catch a glimpse of the city… so we used that time, instead, to grab a couple of pints at a pub close to the train station.
This particular pub was decked out for halloween and full of old, white-haired English men who were sporting tattoo sleeves. It was like a bar full of very hip former sailors. Football was on the TV, and beer was flowing. English pubs are just the BEST. While we drank, we started chatting with another American guy who was engaged to marry a girl from Brighton. Soon we parted ways, and hitched a train back north to the football stadium. Here are a few snaps from the train station and the crowded walks around the stadium.
I think the biggest thing I learned in this game is that the team I’d come to know as “Brighton” is actually locally referred to more often as “the Albion.” As we heard the crowd cheering “UP THE ALBION”, it took us a few beats to even make the connection with the team’s full name. So let’s talk about that really quick.
Most football fans know this team simply by the name “Brighton”. That, however, is not the full name. The full name is Brighton & Hove Albion. Hove is the name of the town right next to Brighton. Together they are “Brighton & Hove”. That part is easy. But what about the term “Albion”? Well… this is apparently a bit of a nomenclature oddity. The term “Albion” was originally the name used for the isle of Britain by ancient peoples like the Celts as far back as the 300s. The term literally means “white’s land”… which is, of course, because of all the white people!
Kidding. The “white” in “white’s land” actually referred to the famous white cliffs that can be found along the southern coast of England, at Dover (in Kent) and Seven Sisters (in Sussex). Both of these sites, especially the latter, are quite close to Brighton & Hove. In fact, locals had adopted the term “Albion” long before the football club came into being, already using it in the names of local businesses. So the club adopted it as well! The YouTube videos I’ve watched on this subject were narrated by people with British accents, so I assume they know what they’re talking about when they say that there isn’t much more logic behind it than this.
But, now that I know the context, I actually think it’s cool! To me it feels like a collective noun to unite Brighton and Hove together using some powerful historical symbolism. In the midst of the ‘home’ supporters section, I can see how simply calling this team “Brighton” excludes a big chunk of the communities it is meant to represent. So, yeah. Up the Albion!
The game was off to a strong start for Brighton—er, sorry—the Albion. Danny Welbeck drew first blood at the half, with an assist from the young Frenchman, Georginio Rutter. And then, in the 85th minute, the big Irishman Evan Ferguson struck again with the Ghanaian right-back Lamptey on the assist, bringing the score to 2-0. Looks pretty good for the Albion at this point, right?
Welp, 3 minutes later, Wolves narrowed the margin to just 1 point with a late brace from Algerian midfielder Rayan Ait Nouri. When the clock struck “90 minutes”, an additional 5 minutes of added time was announced. Not much time left! But, at 90+3, the Brazilian striker Matheus Cunha evened the score with an assist from Thomas Doyle. To which, the entire stadium of Albion fans screamed…
It was a good day to be a Wolves fan… and there aren’t many of those, so the ‘away’ section was going crazy. This is the kind of thing you live for as a sports fan! So, as understandable as their elation was… damn those people were insufferable as we were filing out of the stadium. And I’m not even a Brighton fan!
Here are a few pictures from the match, along with a highlight reel.
For best results with the above YouTube video, set VPNs to the UK. If you’re reading from the US, here’s a link that will work for you.
That’s it for this installment from the land of football/soccer! I just hope Cunha does as well on my fantasy team this week as he did in this match…
Track of the day comes from one of the classic English artists who you will hear played at least once over the loudspeaker at nearly every Premier League match.
