The History of Brighton and Hove Albion v Everton

Everton are the longest serving top flight club in English football history, having spent 114 years in the top division. Brighton and Hove Albion have so far managed four, meaning that there have been just 11 meetings between the two sides.

Despite that infrequency, its a fixture that has previously given birth to an Albion legend and one that saw one of all the time greats scores his last goal as a permanent Brighton player.

Let's start with the goodbye, which was none other than Peter Ward. It was the worst kept secret since Jimmy Saville that Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest were interested in Ward at the start of the 1980-81 season and whether it affected the strikers form we will never know, but he was yet to score 10 games into the season. That was until Everton arrived at the Goldstone for a Tuesday night game. The Toffees ran out 3-1 winners but Ward finally broke his duck which turned out to be the last goal he scored as a permanent Brighton player as he was off to the City Ground a few weeks later.

Coming the other way a season later was Arsenal midfielder Steve Gatting. Gatting had spent all his life as a midfielder yet a defensive crisis bought about due to Gary Stevens being out injured saw Gatting make his debut "out of position" at centre back. He did so well there that he ended up spending the next 10 seasons and 369 games playing "out of position" until he left for Charlton Athletic a decade later.

The Albion aren't known for pulling off cup shocks these days but it was a different story in the 1920s when our best (and one of only two) wins against Everton came in the FA Cup second round. The top flight visitors to the Goldstone were considered one of the most entertaining teams of the decade but they had no answer to an Albion side who scored five times in a 5-2 win. Tommy Cook helped himself to a hat-trick with the other goals coming from Wally Little and Andy Neil in a result that was described as "sending shockwaves around the country".