Welcome to Flying High

Feckless, spineless, gutless: MK Dons 2 - 0 Brighton	Posted by David Snowball at Sunday, April 05, 2009
By Nick Turrell Feckless, spineless, gutless. Any of these could be used to describe the way Albion meekly succumbed to Milton Keynes Dons. As an Albion supporter of more seasons than I care to remember, I've seen my fair share of defeats. We all accept there are occasions when you're going to lose, but as long as you feel everyone has given their all you accept it. What is wholly unacceptable is when your side rolls over without a fight. More than 2,000 Brighton fans put themselves out to travel some distance to support the team in a desperate hour of need. Yet the players - with the exception of Andrew Whing and, to some extent, Dean Cox - ambled around in the sunshine without displaying anything close to the passion and commitment of the supporters. It was a shameful exhibition of professional footballers at their worst. Astonishingly, in his post-match interview, Russell Slade claimed he couldn't fault the players for their effort and commitment. Well, we all watch football with a different perspective, but if he couldn't detect the number of shirkers wearing sky blue, then he's got no hope of holding the manager's job past the end of this sorry, painful season. Whing found himself the subject of fan worship simply because he took every opportunity to get stuck in and chased and harried in a way none of the others came close to matching. It was ironic then that it was Whing who failed to stop a pinpoint cross to the far post which Michel Kuipers and Adam El Abd also failed to get close to, leaving the on-rushing Jason Puncheon to bury with a bullet header to put the Dons 2-0 up. They'd taken the lead when Ali Gerbera stepped all too easily past Matt Heath to drill the ball past Kuipers. Given an equally simple task in the second half, the incomprehensibly inept Craig Davies yet again failed at the job he's paid to do and missed the most golden opportunity to bring Albion back into the game. Davies and Lloyd Owusu could have taken on the title of the Powder Puff Girls such was the level of threat they posed. It was so desperate to see such a feeble amount of effort from a team wearing the Brighton & Hove Albion badge. Player ratings out of 10 Kuipers 6 Whing 8 Virgo 6 Heath 5 Loft 3 Fraser 4 Dicker 3 Cox 7 Owusu 3 Davies 3 El Abd 3 Subs: Carole 5 Jarrett 5