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In some ways the initial upset and disappointment in the wake of Brighton’s FA Cup exit will subside – but on the flip side I’m not sure any of us will truly comprehend the Albion failure on Saturday evening until the eventual winners lift the trophy on May 17, writes Ian Hart.
If it’s Villa or City there will obviously be the natural feelings of ‘what might have been’ but if it’s Palace or Forest, then the regret will be off the scale.
If it’s Forest, then while the crumb of comfort will be that we went out to the eventual winners, the caveat to that will be that ultimately Brighton well and truly fluffed their lines on their big night.
The visitors were there for the taking, but when Brighton finally started playing, there was barely 15 minutes of extra time left, and our opponents had already parked the bus in preparation for their third penalty shootout in this seasons competition.
Diego Gomez and teammates look dejected following the their defeat in a penalty shootout in their FA Cup quarter-final with Nottingham Forest (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)Diego Gomez and teammates look dejected following the their defeat in a penalty shootout in their FA Cup quarter-final with Nottingham Forest (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Diego Gomez and teammates look dejected following the their defeat in a penalty shootout in their FA Cup quarter-final with Nottingham Forest (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
As for the penalties, I’m still going over them in my head, no doubt like thousands of other Albion fans.
The order for a start, why not Lewis Dunk third up? And with the greatest respect to Jack Hinshelwood, a future club legend, Pervis Estupinan apparently takes penalties for Ecuador at international level, so why wasn’t he in the five nominated instead of the homegrown teenager?
As I alluded to in last week’s column, this was, with the other seven sides left in the competition, perhaps the greatest chance, to date, in the club’s 124-year history to win the greatest knockout competition on the planet.
Will Albion skipper Dunk lament in years to come that his best chance to win the FA Cup effectively turned out to be his last?
Whether it will resonate with the foreign players in the squad on duty last Saturday, I don’t know, but for the British lads, like Dunk, they will have to come to terms with how near but yet so far the Albion were at the weekend.
But never mind Forest – with Palace still left in, the ultimate nightmare on Wembley Way looms for Brighton fans all over the world.
Given their current form, a first FA Cup win for the Eagles still can’t be ruled out, and can you imagine how they will bask in the glory? They will not let us forget it for the foreseeable future, years, decades even, made even more so unbearable by the fact that it could have been ours for the taking.
Ironically it was a former Palace manager, Iain Dowie, that bought the word “bouncebackability’ into popular culture, and with the EPL season in the home straight that’s exactly what we need now from the men in blue and white.
And finally just a quick nod to Albion HB’s lounge host and former Brighton captain Gary Chivers – the first thing he did on Saturday when welcoming the lounge guests was a toast to the three departed Wembley heroes of 1983, Tony Grealish, Michael Robinson and Gerry Ryan.
Just goes to show, form is temporary but class is permanent. Thanks Chiv.
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