Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Bournemouth 1
By Tim Hodges at Withdean.
Brighton and Hove Albion were denied all three points by a hotly disputed last minute penalty at the Withdean Stadium early on Saturday afternoon.
The televised match was a battle of first versus third in the league one standings.
Albion, although appearing cautious did pressure Bournemouth from early on.
Lua Lua and Elliott Bennett link up quite effectively, although Bennett plays in a more central midfield role nowadays, as his natural position is taken up by the former.
The two combined well together, but this only amounted to a couple of wayward efforts by the Newcastle loanee.
With nearly a quarter of an hour gone Glenn Murray should have scored from a Bennett corner but, although unchallenged, he put his header way over the bar.
Bournemouth were cautiously building up to an attack, however, it wasn’t until a misplaced pass from Painter that they were given an opportunity.
But Symes’s effort was snuffed out by the Albion defence.
Soon after Symes was put through again and, although flagged offside, he continued with his attempt and gave Albion keeper Casper Ankergren a broken nose in the process.
This caused a lengthy delay in play.
Towards the end of the half Murray had a great effort saved by Jalal in the Cherries goal.
Symes appeared to elbow Tommy Elphick but got away with a yellow card.
Then in the six minutes of added time, Calderon tore down the left and crossed, only for Ashley Barnes to fluff his lines from the edge of the six-yard box.
The Albion had the visitors somewhat pegged back in the early part of the second half, with Dicker and Kishischev becoming more involved in the attacking play.
On the hour mark a foul on Barnes gave Albion a free kick around 30 yards out. Dicker rolled the ball seemingly through the referee to Lua Lua and the man of the moment launched another spectacular drive into the bottom left hand corner to put the seagulls in front.
The Albion, in the form of Ashley Barnes, had at least three good chances to double the advantage and one effort ruled out for offside.
With around twenty minutes left, a mix up in the Bournemouth defence caused Bradbury to head the ball over his own goalkeeper and against the post.
Murray then found himself with space inside the Cherries penalty area, but his excellent turn and shot went just over the bar.
Apart from a lot of huffing and puffing from the perennial Steve Fletcher, who came on as a substitute, the visitors had appeared to run out of ideas.
But in the dying moments a cross from Hollands was contested on the edge of the area by Elphick and the man mountain Steve Fletcher.
One of them handled the ball.
The referee decided it was the Albion man and appeared to award a free kick in the D.
However, assistant referee John Farries waved his flag persistently and the Albion players thinking it would be to their advantage were quick to point this out to referee Darren Sheldrake.
Incredibly the official, who was the farthest from the incident, apart from his fellow assistant and Casper Ankergren, persuaded the referee the offence had taken place inside the penalty area.
Pugh scored from the penalty and ensured Bournmouth secured an undeserved point and that Mr Farries will always have a full glass if he ever goes for a pint in Dorset.
Albion: Ankergren; Calderon, Elphick, El-Abd, Painter; Bennett, Kishishev, Dicker, LuaLua; Barnes, Murray. Subs: Brezovan, Greer, Battipiedi, Sparrow, Baz, Agdestein, Bridcutt.
Bournemouth: Jalal; Bradbury, Garry, Pearce, Wiggins; Feeney, Bartley, Hollands, Robinson; Symes. Subs: Cooper, Taylor, McQuoid, Partington, Cummings, Fletcher..
Ref: Darren Sheldrake
