We’ve been chatting to the guys from We Are Brighton.com ahead of tomorrow’s game at St James’ Park, and they’ve responded to some controversial comments made by Jamaal Lascelles this week.
The NUFC skipper claimed Brighton still have ‘bitterness’ towards Newcastle after missing out on the Championship title to us back in 2017; comments that have not gone down well on the South Coast.
Here’s what they’ve had to say in response:
“Jamaal Lascelle’s comments about their being a “bitterness” between Brighton and Newcastle over the Toon lifting the Championship title ahead of the Albion have been met with a sense of bafflement down here in Sussex. Just what is he talking about?
“I don’t know one Brighton fan who is bitter towards Newcastle for winning the league. The fact that we didn’t lift the title was entirely our own fault. We needed to win just one of our final three games to be crowned champions. What then happened was that David Stockdale scored two own goals as we lost away at Norwich. Chris Hughton decided to play some fringe players such as Jiri Skalak at home to Bristol City and we lost that. Then on the final day of the season, Stockdale left Jack Grealish’s shot from 25 yards go through his legs in the 89th minute. It was our own fault there was no silverware in the Amex trophy cupboard.
“It didn’t help that after winning promotion, our players went on a three-week long bender, lapping up the adulation of fans across Brighton every other night of the week. And nobody could blame them really. Having lost out on automatic promotion by two goals to Middlesbrough a year previously, the overriding aim of the 2016-17 season was promotion.
“While it would have been nice to lift the title, the job was done when we beat Wigan Athletic on Easter Monday. That’s why the bitterness that Lascelle’s talks of simply doesn’t exist.”
A few Brighton fans might have been left feeling bitter if it was unjust or if they’d somehow missed out on promotional altogether, but I think this has been all but forgotten about now, with any rivalry only existing while we were both jostling for that top spot in the second tier.
After all, the Championship winners are rarely remember, with it all being about securing that place in the Premier League at the end of the day.
that’s a very bitter excuse ❗
steve bruce(Quote)