The History of Brighton and Hove Albion v AFC Bournemouth

Quite why everybody insists on calling Brighton v Bournemouth a "South Coast Derby" given that the two towns are 100 miles apart is beyond us. And it isn't even like there is a history of spicy encounters either to justify some sort of rivalry tag.

It was Bournemouth who sent the Albion into the Fourth Division of English football for the first time in 1963 with a 3-1 win at Dean Court and not even that could spark any sort of beef between the two clubs. That was one of 21 wins that the Cherries managed in the old Division Three South which goes a long way to explaining why they are comfortably ahead in the head-to-head between the two sides.

One of the most ridiculous off-the-field moments in Albion history occurred against AFC Bournemouth. Dick Knight decided to dedicate their visit to Withdean in September 2001 to celebrating the clubs 100th birthday.

There were celebrations on the pitch as Paul Watson and an own goal from a certain Eddie Howe gave the Albion a 2-1 win. Those were eclipsed at half time however when Mr Knight stood in the middle of the pitch and cut a giant birthday cake. We thought we'd imagined this, possibly through a bad mushroom trip, but it turns out it did actually happen. You just don't get nonsense like that at the Albion anymore.

That was against the grain as generally, games with Bournemouth don't tend to have much cheer. Our visit to Dean Court in 1995 was interrupted by the first pitch invasion against the sale of the Goldstone Ground, beamed into homes across the region as it was shown live on Meridian. That was the first time we exposed the asset stripping going on to the nation and although it was condemned at the time, in the long run it worked.

One individual who won't have fond memories of Bournemouth is Wayne Henderson. The Albion goalkeeper conspired to misscontrol the ball and then slip over nothing in the last minute on New Years Day 2007, leaving Brett Pittman an open goal which he duly converted to give the Cherries a 1-0 win. That represented the beginning of the end of Henderson's Albion career. He was booed off by the majority of the crowd after coming over to clap the away support but started the next game, a 3-0 FA Cup defeat away at West Ham United. He was then dropped for Michel Kuipers before moving to Preston North End at the end of the January transfer window.