Brighton & Hove Albion 1911-12 Season

Brighton & Hove Albion 1911-12 Season Overview

After two whirlwind campaigns in which they’d won the Southern League, the Southern Professional Charity Cup and been crowned Champions of England, the 19011-12 season was a much quieter year for Brighton & Hove Albion.

It made have been different had they found some consistency a little earlier than February. The Albion would surely have lifted their second Southern League title had they been able to replicate their form from the final 15 games of the season in which they lost only once.

A disappointing start which yielded only two wins from the opening 11 fixtures left them with far too much to do, resulting in a fifth placed finish, some six points behind Queens Park Rangers who just held off the challenges of Plymouth Argyle and Northampton Town to lift the title.

Manager Jack Robson brought three new face to the Goldstone Ground in the summer as Archie Needham, Crosby Henderson and Fred Goodwin arrived from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City and Leek United.

The Albion’s only victories in that disappointing start to the campaign came when Coventry City were beaten 3-1 at the Goldstone Ground on Saturday 9^th September 1911 and Southampton were hammered 5-0 on Saturday 7^th October 1911. Six of the 11 fixtures were drawn and three lost, leaving Brighton marooned in midtable at the end of October.

An injury to regular striker Bullet Jones presented young Jimmy Smith with the chance to lead the line and he grasped the opportunity with both hands, ending the campaign as top scorer with 24 goals from 29 games. Smith marked his arrival with a hat-trick against Watford on Saturday 28^th October in a 3-3 draw at Cassio Road, sparking an excellent run of goals.

A week later he hit a brace in a 7-0 win over New Brompton, added two more seven days after that as Exeter City were beaten 3-1 at St James Park and the next Wednesday, he scored twice in a 6-2 Southern Charity Cup first round replay win over Southampton.

Jones and Smith were paired in tandem to beat Bristol Rovers 5-1 at the Goldstone on Saturday 16^th December and a week later they both scored at the County Ground in Brighton’s most impressive result of the campaign as they won 3-1 away at Division One leaders Swindon Town.

Jones was sold to Birmingham City in January for a big fee of £300. While most clubs would have struggled after losing their leading marksman, Brighton instead thrived and that excellent run of 10 wins, four draws and one defeat followed a month after Jones’ departure to St Andrew’s.

Included in that impressive run of results were a number of impressive home wins. Eventual runners up Plymouth were beaten 1-0 on Saturday 17^th February 1912, champions QPR well beaten 3-1 by a Smith hat-trick on Saturday 30^th March 1912 and a double over Swindon completed with a 2-0 Goldstone victory on the final day of the campaign, Saturday 27^th April 1912.

The biggest disappointment of the season was the Albion’s performances in the two cup competitions. After overcoming Southampton in the first round of the Southern Charity Cup, Brighton crashed out 2-0 at home to Reading, the first time in three seasons that they hadn’t made the final.

In the FA Cup, Brighton had become used to pulling off shocks in recent years but they were on the other end of an upset in the 1911-12 season, a 2-1 defeat away at North Eastern League side Darlington ending Albion interest in the competition at the earliest opportunity.