It was a late Friday afternoon and me and my mate Jake were in Brighton Station, ready to get on the train to London to watch the mighty stripes in blue and white (although they were wearing yellow that night!) take on West Ham United. Surprisingly, their wasn't many Brighton fans on our train - so the sound effects of larger cans being opened and chants were not to be heard. A bit of a relief for those heading up to London for a nice weekend.
Jake and I were two 17 year olds at the time so unfortunately no stops at any pubs before or after the game. Thinking about it now, why the f*** didn't we just take any tinny's on the bloomin' train?! But that is exactly what I miss about not going to the football right now. That drink at the pub before a match, the walk to the station, getting on a packed train (alright I don't really miss that) getting off the train (yeah that's the part I love), that short walk to the ground with the smell of chips and hot dogs in the air - it's all part of the match day experience.
Anyway, we got off the train at a busy Stratford Station which is right next to the shopping centre. Made that walk to the ground and entered the big London Stadium. Took our seats in West Ham's new venue and kick-off had arrived.
It was my first Premier League away day I'd been on and the atmosphere from the Brighton fans was electric. We were new to the Premier League at this point so it was always going to be noisy.
It got even noisier when Glenn Murray put us 0-1 up, 10 minutes into the match - great start but this was a West Ham team with a pretty threatening attacking side and they certainly came at us after we broke the deadlock. Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy took good care of the attacking charge which consisted of Manuel Lanzini and Marko Arnautovic.
Just before half time, Albion are comfortably still 0-1 up and then new signing Jose Izquierdo picks up the ball on the left wing. He takes his time and cuts inside on that deadly right foot of his and BANG! Outside of the box, Jose smashes us into a 0-2 lead!
OMG - me and Jake could not believe it. The Premier League was meant to be tough but we didn't expect it to be this comfortable!
Murray converted a penalty in the second half to wrap the game up. 0-3 and Brighton fans were owning that stadium in their first away win in the Premier League. We all sang till the very end - jokingly chanting about how we were going to get Champions League football. West Ham fans on the other hand - the home side - hadn't been sneaking out, but flooding out the stadium like a landslide. It sure wasn't a long journey home for myself and Jake - I couldn't sleep that night.
By Ed Ettridge