Brighton & Hove Albion 1906-07 Season

Brighton & Hove Albion 1906-07 Season Overview

The 1906-07 season saw Brighton & Hove Albion register their highest Southern League Division One finish to date, an excellent third place being achieved behind champions Fulham and runners up Portsmouth. That good form extended to the United League too, the Albion finishing in second place in the midweek competition, three points behind winners Crystal Palace.

Those lofty league positions represented quite the turnaround for a club who finished just once place outside of the Division One relegation zone in the 1905-06 campaign. The secret behind the success was the spectacular improvement in away form. Having scored just six goals and won only one Southern League game out of 18 on the road the previous season, Brighton picked up six wins and 17 points on the road in the 1906-07 season.

Compared to the past few summers, manager Frank Scott-Walford had a quiet time of it on the transfer front in the close season of 1906. Just seven new players arrived – one of those, Jack Hall from Stoke City, marked his first season as a Brighton player by top scoring with 22 goals – and so for once the first few months of the campaign weren’t spent trying to gel a new team together. As a result, Brighton made a flying start, losing just four times in 25 games between the opening day and the start of December.

Three of those defeats came in the Southern League against New Brompton (3-4), Watford (0-3), and Fulham (0-2). The other was a United League reversal away at New Brompton (2-4), one of only two losses in the midweek competition all season.

The second United League reversal was one of the more extraordinary games in Albion history. It took place at Hastings & St Leonards on Wednesday 13^th February 1907. Hastings went 2-0 up inside two minutes and by the hour mark, the hosts led 4-1 at which point Brighton full back Julius Gregory was forced off injured. With substitutes not yet existing in 1907, the Albion took the decision to move Hugh MacDonald out of goal to take Gregory’s place at right back, playing without a goalkeeper for the last 30 minutes. Remarkably, they only conceded two more to record a 6-1 loss, the biggest of the season.

Back to early season matters, and a 4-1 Southern League victory at the Goldstone Ground over Plymouth Argyle was the pick of the victories in the first three months. The Goldstone’s attendance record was broken when 10,500 packed in for the visit of Portsmouth on Saturday 8^th September 1906.

Brighton played a fixture on Christmas Day for the first time on December 25^th 1906 at Brentford, a 3-1 defeat at Griffin Park. It was a busy festive period for the Albion; as well as the Brentford fixture, the Albion won 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace on December 22^nd, beat Swindon Town 1-0 at the Goldstone on Boxing Day and drew 1-1 at home with Leyton on December 29^th.

A 1-0 win away at Southampton on Saturday 16^th March 1907 lifted Brighton into third spot in the Division One table and they remained there for the final eight games. A week previously on Saturday 9^th March 1907, the visit of Fulham set another new record crowd at the Goldstone as 11,000 came to watch the Albion and the champions-elect slug out a 0-0 draw.

The biggest win of the campaign came on Wednesday 3^rd April 1907 away at 1905-06 Division One champions Bristol Rovers, part of a run of five wins and two draws from those last eight fixtures which helped to secure Brighton their loftiest league position.

After taking Football League Division One opposition Middlesbrough to two replays in the FA Cup the previous year, Brighton were exempted from the qualifying process for the 1906-07 season competition. The Albion were paired with another big club in the first round, drawing the 1905 beaten finalists Bolton Wanderers away from home. Wally Smith gave the Albion a shock lead at Burnden Park but Wanderers’ class showed through as they ran out 3-1 winners.