Brighton and Hove Albion 2 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Brighton and Hove Albion had to share the spoils after taking a two-goal lead at home to Tottenham Hotspur at the Amex this afternoon (Saturday 20 September).
Yankuba Minteh opened the scoring after eight minutes and just after the half-hour Yasin Ayari extended Brighton’s lead.
But Richarlison pulled one back moments before the break and late in the second half the visitors drew level thanks to an own goal from Jan Paul van Hecke.
Although Spurs were behind for most of the match, they dominated the game, especially in the second half.
And it was against the run of play when Albion opened the scoring to the delight of the home fans at Falmer.
Georginio Rutter passed to Minteh who dummied Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario before dinking the ball over him.
Ayari added a second on 31 minutes with a cracking shot from just outside the box.
It looked as though the hosts might take a 2-0 lead into the interval but Mohammed Kudus picked out Richarlison with a terrific pass and the Brazilian buried it from close range.
When the teams were back on the pitch after the break, the north London side were in battling form and almost straight away Kudus was booked by referee Chris Kavanagh.
But it took until the 82nd minute before the scores were levelled when Kudus again played the ball into the Brighton area where Van Hecke deflected it in.
Minutes later, it looked as though Spurs could have a penalty when Xavi Simons went down in the box.
The ref initially waved play on but, shortly after, Albion hearts sank when he made the sign for the video assistant referee. On this occasion the VAR review went Albion’s way.
And when the final whistle came, it was something of a relief to have emerged with a point after what seemed like relentless pressure despite the early prospect of taking all three.
Spurs leapfrog Arsenal into second place behind Liverpool although the Gunners play their game in hand tomorrow at home to Manchester City.
Brighton are in 13th, with five points from five games. They are due to play League One side Barnsley in the third round of the League Cup at 7.45pm on Tuesday (23 September).
Next Saturday (27 September) at 3pm, Albion face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the league.
Before the match, if we’d been offered a draw against Tottenham, then some of the fans might have taken that.
But this is not the Seagulls’ way.
The team play to win and so to go two up early on, was the reward.
But we do need to find a way to hold on to a lead, and this seems to be the problem with the current team.
A draw against Tottenham is not a bad result but, like the loss against Bournemouth last week, we do need to edge wins in at least some of these challenging matches. A draw is two points lost.
The small bits of luck over the season can add up to a good place in the table, but the small mistakes can also add up to a poor place, mid table.
Very poor game , great big hole in made better back line and front line with balls keep coming back 6 back 3 up the front. And why all back with 20m to and lost a goal and then 5 + 5 we start playing again.
It’s about time the Manger start to get the team playing or we be looking at the bottom for sure .