Brighton & Hove Albion 1927-28 Season

Brighton & Hove Albion 1927-28 Season Overview

Brighton & Hove Albion enjoyed a fine 1927-28 season as they finished fourth in Division Three South for the second year running. It was the Albion’s fifth top five finish in six campaigns, although they were further off the top spot than they had ever been in that time as 17 points separated Charlie Webb’s side and runaway champions Millwall.

They might have got closer to the title winners had they not endured such a mixed first half of the season. A 3-1 Boxing Day defeat away at Bournemouth & Boscombe left Brighton 13^th in the table but after that, they lost only five of their remaining 23 matches.

The season began in excellent fashion when Brentford were beaten 5-2 at the Goldstone Ground on Saturday 27^th August 1927. A 3-1 defeat to Newport County followed on Thursday 1^st September 1927 before the Albion picked up a big three points on the road when winning 5-1 at Luton Town on Saturday 3^rd September 1927.

Millwall were the next visitors to Hove and a Tommy Cook hat-trick saw off the eventual champions 3-1. That was as good as it got through before Christmas and the Albion won just four times in the league between beating Millwall and defeating Bournemouth 3-2 at the Goldstone on Tuesday 27^th December 1927.

Those victories came against Norwich City (1-0), Gillingham (1-0), Coventry City (3-0) and Plymouth Argyle (4-1). The win over Plymouth on Saturday 19^th November 1927 was particularly impressive as Argyle would go onto finish in third.

Post-Christmas and the Albion’s season improved dramatically. Their only defeats came away at Millwall (0-6), Plymouth (0-2), Charlton Athletic (0-3), Bristol Rovers (0-1) and Queens Park Rangers (0-5). Losing to Rovers was the biggest disappointment given that just two days earlier, Brighton had won 5-0 as the sides met in Hove.

The Albion beat runners up Northampton Town 2-1 on Saturday 21^st February 1928 at the Goldstone in their most impressive victory in the second half of the campaign. A seasons best crowd of 12,631 witnessed that but home attendances were generally poor with the average down 2,000 on the previous season.

In the FA Cup, Brighton were paired with Watford for a fourth season running. This time, the sides met in the first round with the Albion progressing thanks to a 2-1 win at Vicarage Road on Wednesday 30^th November after the original tie scheduled four days earlier was postponed due to fogd. Dai James and Tommy Cook got the goals. The second round sent Brighton to another Division Three South rival, Northampton Town. It was at the County Ground that the Albion’s interest in the competition came to an end with a 1-0 defeat.

Cook had another excellent season in front of goal, scoring 25 times from 37 appearances while Jimmy Hopkins weight in with 13. Goalkeeper and captain Reg Williams, Reg Wilkinson and Tug Wilson were ever presents, playing in all 44 matches across league and cup.