The Curse of Valentines Day

Our record on February 14^th is nearly as atrocious as paying £25 for a bunch of roses that on any other day of the year cost a tenner. It should therefore have come as a surprise to nobody that we were largely disappointing in the recent outing against Ipswich Town.

In fact, to hammer home that point, we’ve taken a look back at Brighton's performances on Valentine’s over the last 30 years – and with a grand total of zero victories from nine games, it is enough to make an overpriced set meal for two in a restaurant full of 30 other couples who don’t really want to be look more appealing than cheering on the stripes.

So next time you decide to sack off your partner in favour of the Albion on Valentine’s Day, just remember this little lot…

	Brighton 1-1 Ipswich Town - Tuesday 14/02/17 Hot on the heels of a 4-1 win over Burton Albion, the Albion could've made a significant statement with regards their promotion chances with victory over Ipswich Town. This being Valentines Day though, they key players didn't turn up and we laboured to a point that was achieved largely thanks to a couple of excellent saves from David Stockdale. Tomer Hemed got the Albion goal from the penalty spot but this was a largely frustrating evening at the Amex as the chasing pack all picked up points.
	Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Brighton - Saturday 14/02/15 Hot on the heels of the most boring game in football history in a 0-0 Tuesday night draw at Cardiff, the Albion repeated the trick with an equally boring display at Sheffield Wednesday. With Leon Best leading the line, goals were never to be likely but this was absolutely dire stuff as Chris Hughton's side limped to Championship safety in the most painful manner possible. If you'd have predicted the two seasons we've had since under his management, you'd have been locked up in an asylum.
	Brighton 2-2 Millllllllllllllllllll - Tuesday 14/02/12 Last minute goals were something of a trend for Brighton under Gus Poyet in the 2011-12 season. Three days after Alan Navarro had struck a 91st minute away at The Leeds United, it took a trademark Kazenga LuaLua free kick in the 88th minute to rescue a draw against Milllllllllllllllllllll. Sam Vokes was the other Brighton scorer while Andy Keogh and Liam Feeney netted for the struggling Lions - who also introduced a certain Spurs loan player by the name of Harry Kane from the substitutes bench.
	Brighton 0-2 Carlisle United - Saturday 14/02/09 The last league game of Micky Adams Mark II reign of terror. A 2-0 Withdean defeat to Carlisle United made it six defeats in the last seven home games in front of a crowd of 5,529. Former Albion loanee Joe Anyinsah and Richard Keogh scored twice in the space of four first half minutes as we looked utterly doomed with League Two beckoning. The chorus of boos at the end was something else and within a week and a Paint Pot defeat at Luton, Adams was gone. God bless Russell Slade.
	Norwich City 3-0 Brighton - Tuesday 14/02/06 Who doesn’t want to spend a Tuesday night, on Valentines Day, in Norwich? Due to the fact that once you cross the border into Norfolk you are actually transported back to the 1400s, it’s a single lane road all the way into Norwich. That meant a nice four hour drive to get to Carrow Road, only for Darren Huckerby to utterly destroy the Albion defence. And to top off a terrible evening, we ended up being banned by the BBC SCR phone in for suggesting not-so-subtly that Mark McGhee should be sacked.
	Grimsby Town 2-1 Brighton - Saturday 14/02/04 Grimsby looked to be heading for relegation from League One, the Albion were putting in a bid for the play offs under Mark McGhee. Away win banker? Not with this being Valentines Day. On a wet, miserable and freezing cold day, McGhee gave Jake Robinson his first league start and with injuries to Ben Roberts and Michel Kuipers was forced to play Stuart Jones in goal. The result was a 2-1 defeat with Trevor Benjamin netting. Not even the sending off of Cod Army keeper Aidan Davison could help.
	Brighton 0-0 Doncaster Rovers - Saturday 14/02/98 Fans United Day 2 – billed as “The Heart of Football” – took place at Priestfield between two sides who must be comfortably the worse to ever compete in the Football League. We were both miles adrift of everyone else in the fourth tier in the days when thankfully only one side dropped into the Conference. A 0-0 draw was always on the cards with Michael Mahoney-Johnson leading the Brighton line but this was Sunday League standards of bad. And that probably does a disservice to what you find at Waterhall.
	Brighton 1-2 Bristol Rovers - Tuesday 14/02/95 There were plenty of wet experiences at Withdean but one of the wettest games in Albion history came on Valentines Day in 1995. The Goldstone pitch resembled a lake at times with Liam Brady branding the conditions atrocious. Having played a similar game of football with water skis in losing at Bournemouth three days previously, it was Bristol Rovers who took the three points from the Goldstone to all but end the Albion's faint play off hopes. Ian Chapman scored the Brighton goal on a pretty woeful evening.
	Birmingham City 2-0 Brighton - Saturday 14/02/87 This was a day to remember for Ian Chapman but not many other people. The defender became Brighton's youngest ever player when making his debut at St Andrews but that was about as far as it went in terms of positives. Chapman cleared one off the line that meant it was only a 2-0 defeat away at Birmingham - a particularly dispiriting result as they were one of the sides battling with Barry Lloyd's charges to stay in the second tier. As it was, we ended up bottom of the table and they survived by one place.