Brighton lose final pre-season friendly

New Brighton & Hove Albion manager Sami Hyypia didn’t enjoy the welcome party he was expecting as his side lost 3-1 at home to Premier league Southampton. It was the final pre-season game for the Seagulls ahead of their Championship opener against Sheffield Wednesday on August 9th.

New Southampton signing Dusan Tadic opened the scoring for the visitors with a controlled striker from the edge of the area after 19 minutes, Albion defenders had been slow to close down the Serbian midfielder. The lead was doubled just before the break, Stephen Davis was presented with a simple tap-in following some haphazard pinball action in the Albion area.

Naturally, both sides made many several changes for the second half, but it was starter James Ward Prowse who provided the moment of the match just after the hour mark with a superbly struck shot that left Brighton debutant David Stockdale motionless.

There was a moment for most of the 7,296 people inside the Amex Community Stadium to celebrate when Kazenga LuaLua latched onto a lose pass from Saints keeper Artur Boruc, composed himself and fired against the leg of Nathaniel Clyne to loop a consolation goal just underneath the crossbar.

After the game, Brighton manager Hyypia was quick to point out where his players could learn from the performance. He said: “Southampton have real quality in one-on-one situations and we were maybe lacking sharpness a little bit, which we have to pick up very quickly. We now have ten days before it really matters.”