The funeral director from Worthing was co-editor of the Brighton fanzine Gull’s Eye when he received a phone call from Gordon Lucking, a Crystal Palace director, in July 1995. One of his [Lucking’s] employees had been on this golf day and someone got pissed in the evening and said: ‘You’ll never guess what’s happened – Brighton have sold the Goldstone Ground and are moving to Portsmouth.’ Gordon loved it, because it was another nail in Brighton’s coffin.” Hart initially struggled to believe that Brighton’s home since 1902 could be in danger, but decided to confront the chief executive, David Bellotti, at his office. Stand or Fall, written by the Brighton fan Mark Brailsford, follows a group of fans from the last days at the Goldstone in 1997, their exile 70 miles away in Gillingham and then at the Withdean Stadium in Brighton before the club find a new home at the Amex Stadium.
Hart is a producer for the play that will run for four nights from 23 September at the city’s Theatre Royal. An exhibition, also entitled Stand or Fall, detailing what he describes as the club’s civil war, opened at the Brighton Museum in August and continues until the end of the year. There were probably 40 or 50 people from all walks of life and it grew from there.
Some fans tore up seats in the directors’ box as attempts were made to storm the boardroom. Then came the meeting with York that has gone down in Brighton folklore, as fans waited until the 16th minute to invade the pitch, causing the game to be abandoned. They thought they could give us a load of bullshit and we would just take it.” The Goldstone Ground was demolished a year later after Brighton came within 27 minutes of relegation from the Football League, only to be saved by Robbie Reinelt’s equaliser against Hereford.
At one stage they had been 13 points adrift at the bottom of Division Three (now League Two). Brighton finished 91st in the Football League again the following year, playing home games in Gillingham after Portsmouth reneged on their offer to groundshare. It was horrible,” Hart says.
It was when Tony Bloom took over as chair in 2009 that Brighton really began to take flight, moving into the Amex Stadium two years later before being promoted to the Premier League in 2017. The club reached the last 16 of the Europa League in their first European campaign in 2024 and will compete in the Conference League this season. Hart is hoping they could complete the quest for a major trophy.
It makes the whole story even more incredible.”
Extract — continue reading at the source.
