History suggests Brighton won't come back from 2-0 down again this season, so they need to be more proactive - Scott McCarthy

After Brighton and Hove Albion went 2-0 behind for the fourth game out of six in the Premier League this season, it might pay for the Albion to take a little history lesson.

They might have managed to salvage draws in two of the games at home to Fulham and away at Southampton, but those results go very much against the grain - it's been rare over the last 20 years that Brighton have been able to recover from going 2-0 down.

The Albion were 19 games unbeaten at the start of the 2015-16 season when Charlton Athletic visited the Amex. Within five minutes they were 2-0 up. 85 minutes later and James Wilson, Bobby Zamora and Tomer Hemed had completed an almighty comeback - with the last two goals arriving in the final seven minutes - to preserve that undefeated streak.

A certain Glenn Murray scored twice for Reading at the Amex on Boxing Day 2014 inside of the first 30 minutes. Jake Forster-Casey pulled one back just before half-time and whatever caretaker boss Nathan Jones said at the break clearly worked as Inigo Calderon netted a last-minute equaliser.

Leicester City arrived at Withdean as League One leaders in October 2008 and promptly sauntered into a 2-0 half-time lead against Micky Adams’ struggling Albion. It was so bad that some supporters walked out, hoping to get home for that evening's repeat of EastEnders on BBC Three. Those who wanted to check out goings on in Albert Square missed a second half brace from Bradley Johnson and an 89th minute own goal from Jack Hobbs, which gave Brighton a shock win over that season’s champions.

When Burnley visited Withdean in December 2002, they found themselves 2-0 to the good entering stoppage time and with all three points heading back to Turf Moor. That was until an 18-year-old Steve Sidwell gave one of the greatest individual impositions on a game in Albion history, scoring twice in 90 seconds to rescue a point for Steve Coppell’s side.

Nobody who trekked all the way to Gillingham on Boxing Day 1997 will forget their experience at the Priestfield Stadium for Colchester United’s visit for two reasons.

The first was that they'd have spent the whole day wondering what they were doing with their life, spending Boxing Day in Gillingham. The second was Paul Emblen. Brighton had been 3-0 down at half-time and heading for yet another defeat before Emblen notched a second half hat-trick in a remarkable comeback. The game eventually finished 4-4, Jeff Minton scoring a late penalty to equalise after United had retaken the lead following Emblen’s heroics.

It total, there have been 11 comebacks from 2-0 down over the previous 20 seasons, an average of one every two years. With two already on the board this season, it’s fair to say that we can’t afford to give teams a 2-0 head start in games anymore. Just in case you didn’t already know that.

How can the Albion stop it? By being more proactive. It’s becoming something of a recurring theme whereby we start games far too defensive, invite too much pressure and then find ourselves chasing games.

Chris Hughton came out and spoke of the need to show “respect” to Spurs on Saturday. But they arrived having lost three games in a row and with a third choice goalkeeper playing whose experience of English football amounted to 20 odd appearances over seven years at Southampton and 20 games in the bottom division with Gillingham.

A much more attacking second half showed what we can do. It was the same story at Southampton and against Fulham.

History suggests that the Albion aren’t likely to be able to come from 2-0 down anymore this season. So why not stop it happening, by giving ourselves a chance to be 2-0 ahead instead?

Although maybe not this Saturday. This Saturday, we’ll forgive you having 11 men behind the ball, Chris.