New Year’s Eve misery in Coventry as Brighton lose 2-0 and Poyet resets | OneFootball

New Year’s Eve 2011 brought little cheer for Brighton, beaten 2-0 by bottom club Coventry to make it four straight goalless defeats and raise questions for Gus Poyet.

According to WeAreBrighton.com, a cold, half-empty Ricoh left travellers wondering why they came. The writer recalls a detour via canal paths and heavy Crabbies consumption, hardly NHS-endorsed.

Coventry had two shots on target and scored both. Gary McSheffrey strolled through midfield to beat Casper Ankergren from around 25 yards on 34 minutes. Soon after the restart McSheffrey crossed for an unmarked Lukas Jutkiewicz to head in, with Joe Murphy denying Craig Mackail-Smith at the other end.

Poyet said, 'It looked we would never score. It is impossible to win games when you don’t score.' The 12,852 home fans in a 32,609 stadium went home happier than the 1,306 from Sussex, who also faced strict seating checks.

Afterwards came dashes for trains and a few health scares, yet the football still felt worse. Two days later Poyet made six changes against Southampton, replacing Ankergren, Ryan Harley, Billy Paynter, Lewis Dunk, Alan Navarro and Craig Noone with Brezovan, Liam Bridcutt, Will Buckley, Steve Cook, Jake Forster-Caskey and Kazenga LuaLua. Brighton won 3-0, ending a 31-year home wait and starting eight wins, five draws and one defeat from the next 13 Championship games.

Source: WeAreBrighton.com

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