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Forster's contract fiasco
I'M AFRAID the football played at Brisbane Road against Leyton Orient was almost secondary to other matters!
The talking point for Albion fans is the Forster-offthebus-gate affair. Then Scott McLeish and what we think of him.
And then Gus Poyet's "… the worst decision he (ref Steve Cook) has made in his career".
Let's start with the Nicky Forster debate. Facts are he is the club's ex-captain, the senior pro and top goal scorer. He wasn't in the squad for the Orient game. So what happened?
The details of the saga aren't clear but Forster wants a new contract after his expires in June. Manager Poyet isn't ready to offer one.
Forster or his agent publicised this saying he had asked for a transfer. The club said he hadn't and anyway the transfer window was closed. Forster allegedly handed over a written request on the team coach to Orient and after a stop didn't get back on! Poyet didn't want to talk about it after the game but did say he will only put players in his team who want to play for the club.
You can see it is possible to take sides. At 36 you can understand the striker wanting to secure his future early. Poyet will have a number of players to decide on and would like to leave decisions until survival in League One is known.
Who to blame? The Club, Poyet, Forster or his agent? A majority of fans are disappointed in Nicky's timing. Toys out of pram come to mind. Whatever, nobody comes out of this with any credit. So we have worrying times ahead and no Forster on the team sheet.
Next that man Scott McGleish. The club we love to hate is of course Crystal Palace. The individual player that is our least favourite is Mr McGleish! The reason is his over-elaborate celebrations when scoring goals against us. He did it again on Saturday. It goes back to the Goldstone days and his goal in the 4 – 4 draw with Orient. He has also managed to upset us when playing for Barnet and Northampton! This time he equalised for the O's to rob us of the three points. Our main reason to dislike the centre-forward is of course his very annoying habit of scoring against us!
The third talking point was Poyet's statement after the game criticising referee Steve Cook for failing to award a penalty. "He is quite young and for me it is the worst decision he has made in his career". Gus was sent to the stands after complaining too robustly about the non-decision. He says he will not apologise even if he has to answer to the authorities. I've watched it a few times now. It WAS a clear cut penalty AND a red card foul. As Gus said "He needs some glasses".
Back to the football. Albion gave a spirited performance against an in-form Orient. We can claim we were worth the win and that the three points would have been ours but for Messrs Cook and McGleish!
Brighton went ahead after just 5 minutes. Glenn Murray deserves credit for chasing down the O's keeper Jamie Jones and latching on to his mistake for a simple tap-in. The Cook non-penalty, clear to everybody except the ref, also came early on. Liam Dickinson was through six yards out and about to shoot when Ben Chorley brought him down from behind. It should have been red card, penalty, two nil, Orient ten men, game over.
There were several chances for Brighton to make the game safe. Murray had a "goal" disallowed for a marginal offside. McGleish, him again, headed onto his own crossbar defending a corner. Murray skied one over the bar from close range. Elliott Bennett forced Jones to make a fine save late in the second-half.
But then ANOTHER one of those "Oh no not again" moments. Tommy Elphick passed back to keeper Michel Kuipers who slipped over and had to knock the ball away with his hand to prevent the forward scoring. Mr Cook correctly gave an indirect free-kick. This came back off of the Albion wall only to be knocked into the net by McGleish for the equaliser!
The one point meant we went back into the bottom four. AND coming up next are top sides Huddersfield, Norwich, Charlton, and Leeds!!!!
This is a football column so a couple of words on the "L'Affaire John Terry". Enough said, I think!
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 2 C
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