Brighton Fan View: A bad day for Propper and Seagulls

Davy Propper’s red card appeal was never likely to be successful.

Unless you are a top four side or Harry Kane, you are never going to get anything from an arbitrary panel in a situation like that.

Propper’s sending off against Huddersfield last Saturday was certainly harsh, but it was not clear-cut enough to say the referee got it completely wrong. I think he did, but it was one of those where you can fall either side of the fence in terms of the debate and you have to take it on the chin.

It is a shame because Propper has become an important player for Brighton. There are still a couple of fans near where I sit who don’t appreciate his talents and they are probably people who would prefer midfielders of a bygone era like Billy Bremner or our own Jimmy Case thundering into tackles. The game has changed and Propper is a great example of the modern day midfielder, with a superb touch, tremendous vision and capable of playing a defence-splitting pass.

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A large majority of Brighton fans will tell you the Dutchman has enjoyed a great debut campaign for the club and has proved money well spent. It was just that last Saturday was not his day, starting with the first-minute miss and ending with his red card.

In fact, last Saturday was not Brighton’s day full stop. We produced our worst performance for a long time when we needed our best – or at least something close to it – to get a win which was there for the taking and would have taken us all but over the line for Premier League survival.

On the day there were far too many under-par performances and a slow response to the situation by Chris Hughton. I was saying at half-time that substitutes had to come on because there was a flatness to our performance, no spark, and it looked like a little fear in the players. In that situation, I cannot believe our record signing striker sat on the bench without getting on when we were crying out for something to change. Hughton said later Locadia was going to come on just before Propper’s red card but I say that was far too late. Even before the red card, we were holding on despite creating some really good chances.

But this is not a time to be divisive or overly critical of the manager and his players. Chris Hughton and his team have done superbly for most of the season and we need to stick together now, because we have six more chances to get the points we need to stay up, starting with Crystal Palace this weekend.

Let’s be positive. We may have only drawn one and lost two of our last three matches, but that is better than Manchester City! Anthony Knockaert is back from suspension for the Crystal Palace game and I hope he goes straight back in, plus I hope Locadia is picked to start too.

Crystal Palace is our derby and a huge tie, but this weekend the points are far more important to both teams than any rivalry and Brighton must focus on getting something from the game.