Where did the rivalry really come from?
Originally, neither team had a rival as the major teams were all paired up, for example, Chelsea and Fulham. This was because Crystal Palace was the only major team south of the river and Brighton had no other team located nearby. As they only had a 10-mile separation, it gave them a good enough reason to become rivals.
However, this wasn’t the only reason, Crystal Palace FC became known as ‘The Eagles’ in 1974, 3 years later, Brighton & Hove Albion became known as ‘The Seagulls’ from the original ‘The Dolphins’ which came across to Palace as a mockery of their nickname.
In 1977, Mullery was the manager of BHA and Venables the manager of CPFC, this added to the tension as they had history from when they played together. The fact that Venables had a severe disliking towards Mullery caused the palace fans to disapprove of BHA even more and vice versa.
Both teams were in the third division playing the second replay at Stamford Bridge in the FA cup, when the game went to penalties, Brighton scored and the referee ordered for them to retake the kick as a Brighton player had encroached into the 18 yard box, but this was because a Palace player had pushed him. As expected, Brighton retook the penalty and did not score; this led to palace winning the game.
A few years on, Palace took an edge on BHA and were promoted to the second division so left BHA behind, CPFC also made it to the Premier League before BHA. Brighton have finally made their Premier League debut this season (17/18).
On Tuesday 28th November the rivalry continued as the palace fans ventured down, further south, to the coast. There were reports of much violence and Palace fans weren’t allowed into the stand, two stewards were also hospitalised. We await to see what this tension brings in the future.
