Brighton & Hove Albion 1925-26 Season

Brighton & Hove Albion 1925-26 Season Overview

Brighton & Hove Albion had never been the most prolific of scorers but that all changed in the 1925-26 Division Three South season thanks largely to a change in the offside laws. Previously, an attacker was offside if there were three opposition players between them and goal. That was reduced to two in the summer of 1925, with the result being a huge increase in the number of goals across the whole football league.

The Albion had netted 59 goals in 1924-25; that jumped to a record 84 in 1925-26 as Charlie Webb’s side finished in fifth spot. Had they not endured a difficult start to the campaign, they might have been able to put in a challenge for the title instead of finishing some 10 points adrift of champions Reading.

There was an early sign of the goal laden games that were to come when Brighton’s opening day fixture at Newport County on Saturday 29^th August ended 4-3 to the hosts at Somerton Park. Four successive wins followed against Watford (3-1), Brentford (6-1), Norwich City (2-1) and Crystal Palace (3-2) before three consecutive defeats dropped the Albion to 18^th after eight games.

The big victory at Griffin Park was particularly extraordinary. Brighton had managed just 16 goals on the road in 21 games the previous season and here they were scoring six in 90 minutes to go with three plundered at Newport.

Not even the absence of Tommy Cook for most of the season could stop the goals flowing. Brighton’s top scorer of the previous two seasons played just nine times in 1925-26, netting eight goals. Sam Jennings had scored eight times in 11 appearances after arriving from West Ham United towards the end of the 1924-25 season and he brought that form into the new campaign, finishing as top scorer with 20.

The blow of Cook’s absence was lessened by the contributions of Jack Nightingale and Jimmy Hopkins who notched 14 and nine respectively in support of Jennings. Had Cook been fit and available to Webb all season, then who knows where the Albion would have ended the campaign.

Brighton’s form improved after slipping to 18^th and a home draw with Reading on Saturday 21^st November lifted the Albion into fifth. They didn’t drop outside of the top five for the remainder of the season, although they never climbed above fourth either in what proved to be a remarkably consistent campaign in terms of league position.

Other high-scoring games included a 6-2 victory over Aberdare Athletic on Christmas Day 1925, a 5-3 defeat away at runners up Plymouth Argyle on Saturday 13^th February 1926 and a 4-3 loss when Bournemouth & Boscombe came to the Goldstone Ground on Saturday 10^th April 1926.

Two new rounds were introduced to the FA Cup for the 1925-26 season to allow the 22 Division Three North clubs to enter at the first round proper rather than having to go through the qualifying stages. Brighton’s first experience of the expanded competition was a short one as they crashed out in the first round Watford.

This was the second year in a row in which the Albion had been drawn with the Hertfordshire club and just like in the previous campaign, it took a replay to decide the tie. A 1-1 draw at the Goldstone on Saturday 28^th November 1926 was followed by a 209 defeat for Brighton at Vicarage Road four days later on Wednesday 2^nd December 1926.