Match Review – Brighton 3-1 Coventry City

A lot has changed since Brighton and Hove Albion last made the quarter finals of the FA Cup. Back then, Maggie Thatcher was still in power, there was a wall running through Berlin, Mr. Mister topped the charts with ‘Kyrie’ and Prince Andrew was still a couple of weeks away from becoming engaged to Fergie (Sarah, rather than Sir Alex).

Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Coventry City sent the Albion into the last eight for the first time since 1986 and only the third time in the club history. The draw hasn’t been kind with a trip to Old Trafford probably meaning it will be as far as we go in the competition, but even so it is some achievement for Chris Hughton’s second string and a welcome distraction from the bread and butter of a Premier League relegation battle.

Anybody who thinks the magic has gone out of the FA Cup should’ve been at the Amex for this one. Nearly 5,000 Coventry City fans made quite the racket from the away end and despite there being fears of a repeat of the Crystal Palace home game and swathes of empty seats across the stadium, we sold around 27,000 tickets which just goes to prove that with sensible pricing there is still life in the competition yet.

The prospect of seeing £20m worth of strikers no doubt helped and both Jurgen Locadia and Leonardo Ulloa marked their full debuts (or second debut in Ulloa’s case) with goals. Ulloa’s came in the second half and was a typical header from the man from Argentina, leaping high to power home a Bruno cross. When we bought back Ulloa, we knew exactly what we were getting and he showed he hasn’t lost any of that ability despite mainly warming the bench at Leicester over the last two seasons.

Locadia remains more an enigma and this performance did little to lift the cloud of mystery around him. His goal was well taken, hitting a precision shot into the bottom corner from Anthony Knockaert’s low cross. That was exactly the sort of finish you expect from a striker costing £14m but after that he then managed to slice an effort wide from six yards when placed front and centre and produced a quite brilliant air kick. The jury remains out and the wine was obviously flowing in the 1901 area if his selection as man-of-the-match ahead of Dale Stephens or Connor Goldson was anything to go by, not to mention the highly entertaining punch up that broke out in the prawn sandwich area in the second half.

Goldson scored the Albion’s second, his header providing the first goal we have managed to score from a set piece in 32 games this season. It was a great moment given all that Goldson has been through this season and hopefully Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk were watching on and noting how it is done while Markus Suttner’s delivery was excellent all afternoon.

The woodwork was hit four times, twice by Jonson Clarke-Harris for Coventry either side of Locadia’s opener, once by the Dutchman himself inside of five minutes and once by Sam Baldock late on. Clarke-Harris scored the Sky Blues consolation passed Niki Maenpaa in the second half after the Finn had replaced the injured Tim Krul at half time.

Both goalkeepers looked absolutely dazzling in all orange goalkeeper kits. Whoever picked those out needs to give Maty Ryan a push to ditch his black shorts as orange shorts are far superior while for reasons we can’t work out (and didn’t even notice until watching the highlights back if we’re honest), the Albion swapped their normal white socks for blue ones.

Kit and new strikers aside, we didn’t learn much else. Coventry were limited and the gulf in class between the sides was a big one which makes it all the remarkable to think that seven or so years ago we were watching that sort of standard week in, week out.

Now we’re got a reserve side that can brush aside lower league opposition without getting out of second gear and are one game away from a trip to Wembley that isn’t for a pointless league game in front of a half empty stadium against opponents whose only purpose in life is to finish above Arsenal.

We’ve come a long, long way together as the song that used to be played to celebrate victories goes – could Wembley be next? Unlikely, but we owe Manchester United given our history in the FA Cup. And Locadia must score…