After a tricky run of two wins in seven games, which included a disappointing defeat to relegation-threatened West Ham, and a goalless draw with a Liverpool side also pushing to avoid the drop, the aforementioned quarter-final victory over Arsenal was undoubtedly a massive moment in Brighton's campaign.
For several weeks, they had been delivering good performances and not getting the results - but they got both against the Gunners. "It is all coming together in terms of the style we want to play, the way we play and the culture in the group," Fran Kirby toldthe Argus after the Seagulls' next game, which was that win over Man City.
"I feel that the excitement actually started after the Arsenal game," Symonds said last week. "It always felt like we had the momentum with us and this was something that we had our eye on, doing well in the FA Cup. The way that we played and we executed the game plan, and to beat them and to go through to the semi-final, it wasn't just the energy it gave us, but it gave us a belief that we could beat anybody.
"We literally showed that we could. The end of the season just became all of a sudden so exciting, because I felt that we had a feeling within the group that we had underperformed in the first half of the season, we weren't where we wanted to be, and then that sort of changed our feeling."
It's given Brighton a rhythm, in terms of performance and winning feeling, that they can carry into Sunday's final along with that belief that they can beat the very best.