Brighton Amex Hoodoo Continues

After starting off really well the lads allowed Brighton back into the game and it was no surprise when bogey man Welbeck put Brighton ahead.

That's now four goals in his last four games against the Toon.

Brighton had played passes through our lines more than once and, with both defenders close to Welbeck ball watching, he was in on goal and a chip over Pope put us 1-0 down.

Make no mistake; irrespective of how well we played at times, this was a bad defeat.

With just two wins in our first eight games, and only seven goals scored, playing well and being hard done by with last minute goals doesn't hide the fact that we aren't getting results.

I don't want to make scapegoats; but my previous opinion was that Elanga needed some stand out performances to show that he was an upgrade on Murphy, and this wasn't one of those performances.

Renowned for his crossing quality Elanga either didn't hit the early balls from good positions that Woltemade needs, or they were over hit. Too many of our promising moves came to nothing because of a poor final ball. And Elanga wasn't the only guilty party.

I can't recall Eddie making one half time sub, never mind two, and both Murphy and Miley helped us to be far more threatening in the second half.

Whilst Brighton still threatened after the break so did the Toon, and we looked the most likely to score. And so it was, with a superb Woltemade back heel flick sending the away supporters behind the goal into raptures and 'Ole Ole Ole' song.

At that point the Toon looked the most likely to go on and win the game. But, yet again, Brighton exposed our lack of pace down the flanks and from the resultant blocked chance Welbeck hit his second goal and what proved to be the winner.

In summary, IMO, on the day these were two evenly matched teams but ball watching and a lack of pace from our FB's gave Brighton the chances to score, and they took them.

Yes we had good possession and played really well in phases of the game, but Eddie needs to get wins on the board soon to stop us falling further behind the top six.

The big plus from this game was yet another goal, and what a cracker it was, from Woltemade.

I reckon there is still plenty to come from Big Nick and he'll play a big part in getting the wins we need to climb the table and be serious contenders for another CL place.

Comments welcome.