The History of Brighton and Hove Albion v Stoke City

Stoke City is a name that should strike fear into the hearts of Brighton and Hove Albion supporters. We've only ever tasted victory against the Potters in nine of our 40 encounters, with only three wins in our last 30 meetings.

Our record at the Bet365 Stadium in particular is attrocious. Five times we've been there and five teams we've lost. The most recent of those came in the FA Cup in 2011 when Gus Poyet thought his League One leaders would go and show Tony Pulis' agricultural Premier League outfit how to play football.

Needless to say, we didn't as Rory Delap's long throws and Stoke's general set pieces caused utter chaos with the Potters running out 3-0 winners on their way to that years final where they would lose to Manchester City.

Our only goal in those five meetings came from Lee Steele (who had earlier missed a penalty) in our first visit in March 2002. This was around the time when playing on television was terminal for Brighton's hopes of winning games of football and so it proved with Stoke winning 3-1 live on ITV Sport. A certain Chris Iwelumo scored the hosts opener that day.

Playing them on the last day of the season seems to be particularly hazardous. Take the 5-1 defeat at Withdean in April 2006 for example. Mark McGhee's side were already relegated from the Championship, but played like they should have been demoted into the Ryman League.

It was so bad that the South Stand actively began cheering the fourth and fifth Stoke goals, the Stoke fans celebrated Doug Loft's consolation and Adam Rooney left the field to a standing ovation and chants of "ROOOONNNEEEYYYYYY" after his hat-trick. Things were topped off nicely when McGhee came out after and said it didn't matter, anyway.

That goes nicely with the 4-1 defeat we suffered at the Goldstone in 1989. On that occasion, Stoke were already relegated but came south and completely outclassed a typically woeful Albion side. Thank God this isn't a final day game.