Bye Bye to Division 2

Will Packham was handed his first league start by Peter Taylor. Junior Lewis was absent due to an operation on his troubled groin, Charlie Oatway was the able deputy.

Port Vale grabbed the first shot in the sixth minute. Stephen Brooker darted into the box to take a shot but he mis-hit to put the ball straight into Packham's arms.

The first Albion chance had to be waited for. A pass inside from Paul Brooker on the right found Nathan Jones who had his first shot blocked by Matt Carragher and his second superbly saved by Mark Goodlad in the 28th minute.

In the 32nd minute a Vale player went in for a two-footed tackle on Chippy, this resulted in handbags with 19 of the 22 players involved. The Vale number 9 saw red for the challenge. After the scuffles were over the Seagulls threatened when a free-kick from Carpenter curled through the Vale wall but Goodlad made another good save to his bottom right.

Danny Cullip

Just before half-time Packham came out to collect an inncuous Vale cross. He obviously hadn't called as he clattered into Danny Cullip who was going for the same ball. Danny then proceeded to give him a verbal dressing down, that was the only time you cxould hear something from the pitch above the noise created by the Seagulls followers.

Brighton were in control throughout the second half with some excellent passing & some nice touches by Bobby & Nathan in particular.

Brighton finally got the goal from a Paul Watson free-kick. The kick was given between the area and the touchline. A perfect place from which to get a quality cross in. Watson stepped up and curled the ball into the opposite top corner beautifully. A couple of Seagulls fans got onto the pitch, which meant that half of the Staffordshire Police force in full Riot Gear stood in front of the Away end for the rest of the match!

The Albion Fans stayed behind while the Vale Fans were cleared from their own Ground so tha we could celebrate the end of another Championship Season.

Once Bob Booker had asked the twenty or so fans on the running track to get back behind the wall, the players came back out onto the pitch for reciprocal applause & singing with the Fans. A few minutes later Bobby Z joined the rest of the Team, he had been subbed on 82 mins so I guess he'd decided to shower.

Then a couple of minutes later Peter Taylor came out, putting his suit on, the players turned and gave the ' I'm not worthy' salute, before Rogers seemed to a Quasimodo impression behind his back.

Another Great Albion Day, and to cap it all I met Dick Knight, Martin Perry & Peter Jackson as we left the Ground.

Bye Bye to Division 2!