Brighton & Hove Albion 1903-04 Season

Brighton & Hove Albion 1903-04 Season Overview

The 1903-04 season was Brighton & Hove Albion’s first in Division One of the Southern League. The Albion found the step up in class difficult, finishing in the relegation zone and were only spared an immediate return to Division Two due to a set of fortunate circumstances.

Kettering Town were the only side who finished below Brighton in the table but they withdrew from the league at the completion of the campaign. Division Two champions Watford took the Poppies’ place and with runners up Portsmouth Reserves ineligible for promotion due to Pompey’s first team playing in Division One, the Albion were granted a relegation reprieve.

Manager John Jackson strengthened his squad in the summer, bringing in seven new faces to complement his championship winning side. Billy Roberts was the most successful of the new arrivals. Signed from Grays United, he was an ever-present and finished top scorer with nine goals from his 34 appearances.

Highlights were few and far between as Brighton won only six games in the 1903-04 season. The first of those was easily the most impressive, a 3-0 hammering of Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Saturday 26^th September 1903. That was the Albion’s only away win of the campaign with their home successes coming against West Ham United (3-2), Kettering (3-1), Wellinborough Town (5-1 and the biggest win of the campaign), Brentford (3-1) and Fulham (2-1).

The victory over the Cottagers on Saturday 24^th February 1904 had Brighton sitting 12^th in the table. They failed to win any of their final 11 games however and ultimately led to their final placing of second bottom. Included in that run was a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to New Brompton on Saturday 5^th March 1904 and a 1-1 draw away at Kettering a week later.

That point at Rockingham Road was one of 12 draws that Brighton recorded in their 34 games, giving them the title of Division One’s draw specialists. If the Albion had turned some of those stalemates into victories, they might have escaped the clutches of the relegation zone. New Brompton ended the campaign only a point ahead.

The FA Cup didn’t provide much of a distraction either. Brighton entered the competition at the third qualifying round where they were duly dispatched 4-0 by West Ham. That was one of two trips that Brighton made to the Irons’ Memorial Grounds home in the 1903-04 season; the other being a 5-0 Division One defeat. Not a happy hunting ground for Jackson and his players.

Despite the disappointing performances, the Brighton and Hove public seemed to enjoy the higher standard of football on offer. The average attendance increased from 2,580 in the 1902-03 season to 5,012 in 1903-04. The visits of fellow south coast clubs Portsmouth and Southampton drew particular interest to the Goldstone; 8,500 turned out for the 1-1 draw with Pompey on Saturday 23rd January 1904 with 8,200 attending the 3-1 defeat to eventual champions Southampton two months later on Saturday 19^th March 1904.