The Goldstone Wrap

Having drawn at Underhill three days before, Brighton faced non-Leaguers Barnet in a Third Round Replay in the FA Cup at the Goldstone on 5th January 1982.

The match was originally going to play second fiddle on ITV’s Sports Special to the scheduled match between Middlesbrough and QPR. When that was called off in mid-afternoon, an extra two cameras were rushed to the Goldstone and installed at 7.15pm.

In this footage from the early part of the first half, note the playing of the Match of the Day theme tune over the tannoy during this broadcast for TVS!

It was TVS’s first ever visit to the Goldstone, after taking over the contract from Southern TV. In the match programme against Everton a month later, the news section stated:

A reasonable request has been received by your match announcer from ITV’s Brian Moore. Normally at the Goldstone such football favourites as ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and the theme to BB’c “Match of the Day’ have been among the musical offerings on the PA system.

However, the playing of ‘Match of the Day’ has apparently caused some problems when ITV have been showing line-ups prior to kick-off.

When the ‘Beeb’ come to the Goldstone we also promise not to play the ‘Big Match’ theme, Jubilation.

As for Michael Robinson, his knee injury meant he missed the next six matches, eventually returning as substitute in the 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest in February. Remember the goalscorer? Yes, Peter Ward.

How Albion could have done with a Peter Ward in this first-half. As it was, their main chances came from mix-ups between the Bees defenders and keeper Gary Phillips. Interesting to see the clash between Graham Pearce and Jimmy Case. A year later, Case commented on how difficult Pearce made it for him during this game. He probably won his respect here:

With the 0-0 scoreline at half-time, Barnet must have fancied their chances, but a sloppy clearance gave Mickey Thomas one of his few happy moments in his time at Brighton:

As the match reached its finale, Albion increased their lead:

Unlike the commentator here, Albion’s match announcer Tony Millard harshly called the second goal as an own goal. As Millard later wrote:

Your match announcer received some friendly ribbing concerning the announcement of Albion’s second goal against Barnet. At the time, the announcement was… ‘Albion’s second goal on 67 minutes, a Jimmy Case shot deflected into his own net by Kevin Millet.’

Well, Jimmy was keen that the goal should count as his and it is now accepted in football that a goal is only ‘credited’ to a defender if the original shot would not have gone in if the defender had not been there.

Well, Jimmy’s shot would almost have broken the net if Millet hadn’t been there, so the goal quite definitely goes to Jimmy Case, his fourth of the season.

Best goal of the match, was undoubtedly Gary Sargent’s dribble and sizzling finish that made Foster and Moseley look like fools.

After the match, Barnet boss Barry Fry said: ‘We defended very well but Brighton were different class.’ Mike Bailey was a relieved man, stating: ‘The penalty came just at the right time for us.’

An upshot of the game was that the Bees full-back Graham Pearce, transfer-listed at the time, signed for Brighton. Accompanied by Fry to the Goldstone, he took a little while before deciding to take the plunge into League football. As the programme for the Oxford match in the fourth round put it:

With an income from his full-time job as sprinter and also from part-time football, it needed a little thought for the 21 year old to enter the comparative insecurity of the professional game. Graham couldn’t join our staff immediately as he had to serve out a full week’s notice with his employers first and they couldn’t afford to release him early.

Pearce playing left-back for England? Has a nice ring to it.