Brighton 1-1 Fulham: Bad weather, bad refereeing, bad finishing

Sod being a Fulham fan. Imagine forking out thousands of pounds each season to watch grown men go to ground every five minutes, clutching their faces. An hour of it throughout Brighton 1-1 Fulham was tedious enough; goodness knows how those poor Cottagers put up with it week in, week out, when their most expensive season ticket costs £3,000.

Sour grapes? Perhaps. A disappointing afternoon? Definitely. The transport to and from the Amex was rubbish. The weather was rubbish. The refereeing was rubbish. And the Albion’s finishing was rubbish. Oh, and the roof in the West Upper is leaking. Other than that, a great Sunday.

Brighton racked up 18 shots with 10 on target. Two arrived inside of seven minutes, Bernd Leno saving a distance drive from Carlos Baleba and then using his legs to deny Simon Adingra at the far post. Had Adingra got a little more power on his effort, the Albion would have taken a very early lead.

Baleba and Adingra had a further opportunity each but were wastefully off target. Kaoru Mitoma then dragged wide following a deft back heel from Mahmoud Dahoud, enjoying probably his best game in a Brighton shirt.

Roberto De Zerbi opted to pack out the midfield, naming four central players in the same XI. Dahoud and Baleba sat deep with Pascal Gross and Adam Lallana buzzing around behind Evan Ferguson in what was effectively a 3-4-2-1 formation.

Gross was clearly enjoying this more advanced role and it was when he found himself on the edge of the box midway through the first half that the major talking point in Brighton 1-1 Fulham occurred.

Joel Palhinha caught Gross in the face with his elbow in a challenge similar to the one which saw New Zealand captain Sam Cane sent off in the Rugby World Cup final the previous day.

Yet despite the assault produced by Palhina being deemed a red card in rugby, referee Michael Salisbury saw nothing wrong with it in football.

Brighton did not even receive a free kick, much to the disgust of the normally placid Gross who spent the next five minutes telling Mr Salisbury exactly what he thought about the lack of decision.

Match of the Day were as baffled about the lack of punishment as Gross. Insult would go onto be added to injury when Palinha scored the second half goal which made it Brighton 1-1 Fulham.

So much happens in 90 minutes of football that it is often hard to definitively say that one incident can be totally game changing.

On this occasion however, it undoubtedly was. With Palinha off the pitch, Fulham do not come close to equalising and the Albion come away with three points.

An apology from PGMOL should be forthcoming as this was the most disgraceful performance to do with Salisbury since the KGB decided to holiday there in 2018.

The irony that the only genuine head injury in the game befell Gross rather than any of the nine different Fulham players who went down in the second half was not lost on anyone, either.

Unlike the thespians in bright pink, Gross got on with the game. It was not long after his near-decapitation that Der Kasier set up Evan Ferguson to give Brighton the lead.

Spotting a gap between two Fulham defenders, Gross threaded through the perfect pass. Ferguson produced a great first touch and caressed the ball into the bottom left corner for a wonderfully clinical finish.

It was Ferguson’s 10th Premier League goal of 2023, meaning he becomes the first teenager since Wayne Rooney to hit double figures in a calendar year. The records keep tumbling and the accolades keep coming for the Irish sensation.

Brighton’s inability to keep a clean sheet this season meant one goal was never likely to be enough. Ferguson saw a good opportunity to double the lead grabbed by Leno on the stroke of half time, followed by Lewis Dunk rattling the cross bar with a free kick shortly after the restart.

Yes, you did read that correctly. Four years and 237 attempts since he scored from a direct free kick at Liverpool in 2019, Dunk *almost* repeated the trick.

Baleba was off target again before Fulham equalised with their first effort of any note. The Cottagers nicked possession on the edge of the Brighton box when a loose Gross pass did not make it to Baleba.

Two quick passes later and Palinha crashed the ball into the top corner as Dunk stood off. Not for the first time, the Albion had proven their own worst enemy defensively.

Fulham suddenly found themselves in the ascendancy and Jason Steele had to make a reaction save to stop Rodrigo Muniz giving the Cottagers the lead. Minds flashed back to last February when Fulham committed daylight robbery in winning 1-0 at the Amex.

De Zerbi responded with a triple substitution which turned the tide back in Brighton’s favour. Fulham responded by reverting to acting and theatrics of the sort rarely seen outside of an episode of Hollyoaks.

Every time the Albion were in possession and looking to break, a Fulham player would go down with an injury. And Mr Salisbury fell for it every time, including when two visitors miraculously picked up head injuries at the same time.

The gamesmanship reached its nadir when Leno sat on the ground with cramp when the ball was 70 yards up the other end of the pitch.

“Have you ever seen a goalkeeper get cramp before?” asked the 27,000-odd people who were in the Amex. It was desperate stuff from Fulham… but it worked.

Maybe it would not have done if Brighton had been more clinical. Further chances came despite all the Fulham fakery for Ansu Fati, Adam Webster and Facundo Buonanotte.

The first two were denied by the legs of Leno and a header off the line respectively. As for Buonanotte, he fired high into the North Stand right at the death with the Amex half empty.

Many Brighton fans had already abandoned ship, having seen enough to suspect no winner was forthcoming. And that kind of summed it up. Frustration against Fulham, not for the first time.