Wednesday jump around in delight. The Brighton full back Bruno meanwhile crumples to the floor, pressing his bearded face into the turf, sobbing his heart out. Stockdale tries to pick him up. It takes a while. Poor Bruno. Poor Brighton. They were simply stunning in that first half, a relentless attacking force of nature. On another day they’d have scored the goals they needed. But the luck wasn’t with them - witness all those injuries, Hooper’s cheeky shove on Dunk, Knockaert’s brilliant free kick hitting the inside of the post yet staying out - and once again it isn’t to be their year. The Championship can be proud of them. They would have graced the Premier League. But take nothing away from Wednesday, who were defensively resolute, and in truth the better side for the other three halves of football in this two-legged affair. Is their 16-year exile from the Premier League about to end? Only Hull City or Derby can stop them a week on Saturday. Nighty night!
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FULL TIME: Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday (agg 1-3)
Forestieri nearly breaks clear down the left. Then up the other end, Wilson drags a 25-yarder wide right. And that’s it! Wednesday are going to Wembley, where they’ll most likely, unless something very strange happens tomorrow night, be playing Hull City for a place in the 2016-17 Premier League!
90 min +4: The ball breaks to Wilson on the edge of the box. He slips, but Brighton get a second chance as the ball squirts right to Dunk. He’s one on one with Westwood! But he batters his shot straight at the keeper, who parries easily. A corner results, but nothing comes of it. Brighton’s last chance, slim as it was, has gone.
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90 min +3: Forestieri chases after a long lump down the middle. Stockdale comes out of his area and beats him to the ball. Just. But just is enough.
90 min +2: A slight melee in the Wednesday box, and the ball falls at the feet of Knockaert, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. But he nearly takes a complete air shot, and feathers the ball out of play for a goal kick.
90 min: LuaLua cuts in from the left and sends a low, lame shot wide left of the post. Westwood guides it wide. A feeling that this is all over. But this is not quite all over! There will be six added minutes. Six! East wasn’t joking when he pointed at his imaginary watch while Wallace waddled off.
89 min: Skalak, down the right now, loops long, forcing Lees into the concession of a corner. But the resulting set piece sees Bruno give away a cheap free kick in the midst of all the bustle, and the pressure, such as it was, is released. The away fans are in full party mode now. It’s like Leicester-on-Sea.
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88 min: Knockaert, down the left, finds Dunk on the penalty spot with a low cross. But the big emergency striker can’t sort his feet out. Bannan scampers off with the ball.
87 min: “Hull City, we’re coming for you!” trill the travelling Wednesdayites. Fair to say they don’t have much faith in Derby County, then. Or, indeed, Brighton, whose race seems run. Nuhiu has a shot from 20 yards, but it’s not very good. The clock, however, ticks on.
85 min: Skalak makes ground down the left and fires low into the Wednesday area. Wilson tries to manufacture a shot on the turn, sending the ball sailing high and wide left. At the restart, Nuhiu barges into the back of Kayal, a clumsy nonsense that earns a yellow card. Is everyone on a yellow now?
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83 min: Brighton are beginning to lose their discipline, and their heads. Forestieri is brought down on the left by Rosenior. A chance to roll around the turf awhile, as seconds slip away.
82 min: Helan powers down the left wing, cuts inside, and is brought down by Bruno, who hooks his arm around the Wednesday player’s neck. A booking for a cynical foul.
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81 min: LuaLua purchases a fairly cheap free kick off Lee down the left. Another chance to load the box. Skalak takes. Lees eyebrows the high ball out for a corner on the right. Loovens then batters the corner clear with a magnificent clearing header.
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80 min: Nuhiu and Lee work down the right to earn Wednesday’s first corner of the match. Stockdale punches the set piece clear. Kayal tries to find Knockaert with a Hollywood pass on the counter, but it sails harmlessly through to Westwood.
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79 min: Brighton still have all the ball, but Wednesday look super-organised. The away fans are making the most noise now. Time is not the hosts’ friend.
77 min: Liam Rosenior comes on for Greer.
76 min: Wednesday batter it long. Nuhiu rises high and sends the ball wide right for Lee, who returns it to the far post. Nuhiu has peeled off and meets the cross, but heads over harmlessly. For a second, though, Brighton were exposed.
74 min: Nuhiu embarks on a very strange dribble from the Wednesday right back towards his own box. Skalak nips the ball off him, and Loovens is forced to concede the foul before the chance of a shot opens up. A free kick, 30 yards out, just to the left of goal. After interminable faffing, LuaLua blooters a daft effort straight into the wall. What a waste.
71 min: Hooper is replaced by Adthe Nuhiu. He takes an age to get off. Referee East does the ostentatious watch-tapping mime in the Wednesday bench’s direction. Expect some added-time drama!
70 min: It’s attack versus defence, Wednesday sitting deep. Brighton have all the possession, but the visitors are holding their shape well. They’re not giving up any chances.
68 min: Skalak dances down the left, grooving himself into a bit of space. He chips a cross to the far post, but there’s nobody in blue and white over there. Pudil clears. Brighton are beginning to play with hectic desperation. They’re not quite as smooth in attack as they were in that first half. Then again, that first half was exceptional, even if all their efforts got them nowhere.
66 min: Wallace felt his hamstring after taking that shot, and now he plonks himself down on the turf. Tick, tock, tick, tock, there goes time! LuaLua charges up and leans over him in a very threatening manner. For a second it looked as though the Brighton man was intending to hoof his opponent’s nut clean off his shoulders. The referee reminds everyone how old they are, and we carry on. Or, more accurately, the game carries on: Wallace limps off, to be replaced by Jeremy Helan.
64 min: Wallace takes a blast from the best part of 35 yards. The ball balloons into the air and falls harmlessly back to earth by Stockdale.
63 min: Knockaert is booked for chasing after Forestieri and hacking him down from behind. He can’t have any complaints, and in fairness doesn’t bother making one. The nerves, the desperation, the panic, it’s palpable.
62 min: Baldock, who has been quiet, verging on ineffectual, is replaced by Kazenga LuaLua.
61 min: A free kick for Brighton out on the left, the freshly booked Hunt having clattered into Skalak. The hosts load the box. Skalak then idiotically blooters the set piece high over the bar. Three rugby points, but those are no good!
59 min: Hunt is booked for time wasting at a throw. Carlos Carvalhal, on the touchline, wasn’t particularly happy at the two Kayal incidents; he’s positively livid now.
58 min: Kayal is very, very lucky not to be walking. He slides in on Wallace, two feet up, not in total control. It should at least be a second yellow, but referee Roger East opts to perform the palms-to-the-turf calm-down mime instead. Lucky Kayal.
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56 min: From the free kick, there’s a game of head tennis in the Wednesday box, and then the visitors break upfield through Forestieri. He’s bombing down the left at high speed, and is wiped out by the most cynical charge you’ll ever see from Kayal. A yellow card. For a second, the Amex fell silent anticipating red. But it was on the halfway line, and there was a covering man in the middle. Still.
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55 min: Hutchinson shoves Kayal in the back. A free kick, and he’s booked for arguing the toss. He’s then got to be pulled away from Kayal, as the pair lock horns. What a preposterous performance.
53 min: Wednesday are beginning to get a foothold in this game. It’s about time. A quiet period for Brighton. The crowd do their best to raise their heroes. It’s some atmosphere at the Amex. The play-offs are magnificent entertainment. Cruel, but magnificent.
51 min: Brighton press hard, but Kayal and Knockaert combine to lose the ball and Wednesday break. Bannan’s given much too much time down the inside-left channel, and he sends a bouncing bomb towards the bottom right from the edge of the box. Stockdale spills the ball, and it breaks wide right to Wallace, who looks for Forestieri in the middle. Fortunately for Brighton, and especially Stockdale, Bong - New Fast Automatic Daffodils earworm alert! - is on hand to snuff out the danger.
49 min: Kayal latches onto a loose Bannan clearance and drives down the middle. He then slips the ball just to his left for Wilson, who hits low towards the bottom right. Westwood’s claiming that one all day. But Brighton look just that little bit sharper, again.
48 min: ... the ball’s hit long for Sidwell, who returns it back left for Skalak. He shoots towards the bottom left. Westwood parries. Wilson has another go, from a tighter angle. The keeper gathers. Brighton obviously aren’t in the mood to spend the summer wondering.
47 min: Bong and Skalak combine down the left to earn a corner. From which...
And we're off again!
The visitors get the ball rolling once more. They’ve hooked Lopez and sent on Sam Hutchinson, a defensive move. What they have, they’re looking to hold. Incidentally, away goals don’t count double. Two more goals for Brighton, and we’ll be heading to extra time.
Half-time entertainment: Here’s Brighton taking their British Caledonian helicopter to the 1983 FA Cup final, soundtracked by their cup final song. ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ “Football’s our game / Brighton’s our name!” ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
HALF TIME: Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday (agg 1-3)
And that - phew - is that for the first half! A brilliantly entertaining match so far. Brighton should be leading. Wednesday could be leading. A sense that anything could happen yet. Don’t go away! No flipping!
45 min +4: Wednesday then breeze up the other end, Forestieri curling a ball into the box for Hooper, who heads it straight at Stockdale when it was surely easier to score! The keeper is able to claw it away, rather well in fairness.
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45 min +3: Wilson burns down the right and earns a corner off the back of a sliding Pudil. Knockaert takes long, forcing Hunt to concede a corner on the other side. And from that one, there’s an astonishing scramble in the Wednesday box, Dunk failing to connect properly with a header from six yards, then Lee clearing a Greer prod off the line!
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45 min +1: Sidwell eases down the right and floats a cross into the box. Dunk rises on the penalty spot and aims for the top left, but his header sails high over the bar.
45 min: There will be four added minutes in this half. A suggestion from the referee and his assistants that Wednesday have been rather guilty of time-wasting.
43 min: Brighton’s energy levels have fallen a little, no surprise given the time/effort/reward ratios. Wednesday are more than happy with the resulting lull in proceedings. “A wise man once told me that the only way to ensure that the bread falls jam side up every time, is to drop the bread on the floor first, and then put the jam on,” writes Simon McMahon. “I think he was saying ‘you make your own luck’. Or maybe he just liked bread and jam.”
41 min: Knockaert hits the free kick deep, panicking Hunt into heading behind for a corner on the left. The corner’s hit long, and Bruno tries to squeeze a header home from a tight angle to the right of the goal. It’s catching practice for Westwood.
39 min: Brighton knock it around the middle awhile, before Kayal tries to press down the right. He’s upended by Lopez, who very nearly talks himself into the book. A free kick, and a chance for Brighton to load the box.
36 min: Boom! Skalak! The nearest the MBM has ever got to a Sly and the Family Stone reference, and a fine free kick which whistles inches over the bar. That very nearly found the top left. Westwood wasn’t getting to that.
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35 min: Wilson attempts a Cruyff Turn down the inside-left channel, and is cleaned out by Lee. A free kick, 25 yards out, just to the left of the goal.
33 min: Knockaert, who has been everywhere, slides down the right and slips a pass inside to release Wilson into the area. Wilson opens his body, gives Westwood the eyes, and tries to sidefoot across the keeper and into the bottom right. But Westwood smothers well. Brighton continue to be effervescent in attack.
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31 min: Brighton respond well, Knockaert swinging a cross in from the right to cause a little bedlam, Dunk then sashaying down the middle and very nearly releasing Baldock with a chip forward.
29 min: The Amex is stunned momentarily, before locating its collective voice again. That was a comical fluke, featuring a cheeky little shove. Once again, the bread is falling jam side up for Wednesday.
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GOAL! Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday (Wallace 28; agg 1-3)
This came out of nowhere! Wednesday embark on a rare sortie upfield. Hunt slips the ball down the right for Wallace, who swings a deep cross in. And it finds its way into the left-hand portion of the net, bouncing harmlessly home! As the ball arced through the area, Hooper gave Dunk a little nudge under the ball. It’s a saucy move, and he’s got away with it! This is a preposterous scoreline given the balance of play, but that’s football!
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27 min: Brighton come back at their guests again. Knockaert and Wilson attempt to prise them open down the right, and nearly succeed, but Loovens is on hand to snuff out the danger, intercepting and lashing clear.
25 min: Wednesday faff around in the midfield, taking some time over a throw. It’s clever game management, taking a little bit of sting out of the game. They’ve otherwise been all over the shop. All at sea at the seaside. “Brighton attacking this game with all the passion, gusto and purpose of Newcastle against Spurs on Saturday,” reports Jeremy Dresner. “Is this the case for the hinterland between the Premiership and the Championship being the best virtual league in the world?” Very possibly. No wonder Rafa is thinking about working there.
23 min: Knockaert takes a free kick from a deep position on the right. His diagonal spray finds Dunk racing into the area on the left. Dunk hooks across the area. Bruno, haring in, slams a shot wide right. Turns out Dunk was marginally offside anyway, but dear me, this is some performance so far from Brighton. Wednesday look utterly discombobulated.
21 min: It would have been the height of absurdity had Brighton failed to score after all that pressure. It was as one-sided a period of play as you’ll ever see!
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GOAL! Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday (Dunk 19; agg 1-2)
Knockaert, tight by the byline, loops the free kick, to the near post. Bruno eyebrows it onwards, to the back post, where Dunk races in and roofs a shot from a couple of yards! This had been coming all right. This is on! The Amex is on a rolling boil!
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18 min: Pudil is very fortunate to escape the referee’s notebook, as he comes sliding in on Bruno as the Brighton full-back careers down the right. It’s nearly a corner. A free kick, from which...
17 min: Skalak crosses from the left. Wilson flicks the ball on to the far post, where Baldock should score from the corner of the six-yard box. But he heads wide of the right-hand post. This is astonishing! Brighton may begin to rue all these missed chances.
16 min: This is relentless! Baldock takes a long, high ball down the inside-left channel, turns inside Hunt, and fires a rising shot towards Westwood, who tips over. The corner again leads to nothing.
15 min: This is brilliant from Brighton. They are relentless. Knockaert makes off down the inside-right channel and has a dig from 30 yards. His effort balloons off Lees and very nearly loops over Westwood, but sails just wide right. The corner comes to naught, the keeper fouled.
14 min: ... sees his cheeky low Coutinho-esque slider, under the wall, towards the bottom right, clawed out by Westwood.
13 min: Kayal bursts down the inside-right channel, and is upended by Lees just outside the box. Another booking, and another free kick just to the right of the D. Knockaert takes again, and ...
11 min: Sidwell harries to win the ball in the midfield. He passes down the right to Knockaert, who looks in the mood for this. He bustles down the wing and reaches the byline, only to see his low fizzer into the centre, meant for Baldock, intercepted by a sliding Loovens.
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10 min: Knockaert sends a curler up and over the Wednesday wall, and towards the top-right corner. It’s a brilliant free kick, beating Westwood at full stretch. But the ball clanks off the inside of the post, across the face of goal, and away from danger. So unlucky, because that was a deliciously clipped free kick. An inch to the left, and Brighton would be in the lead. When is their luck going to change in this tie?
9 min: Stockdale boots long from hand. Wilson takes the ball down on the edge of the Wednesday area. He can’t quite keep control, and the ball breaks to Knockaert, who tries to round Loovens on the outside. He’s brought down. A yellow card for the Wednesday defender, and a free kick just to the right of the D.
7 min: Brighton knock it around the middle of the park in the patient style. Until Greer gets fed up, and tries an ambitious ball down the right flank, with a view of releasing Baldock. Nope! Westwood gathers a harmless pass. But Wednesday aren’t seeing too much of the ball right now.
5 min: This is a very bright start from Brighton. A long ball hoicked down the inside-left channel, and Wilson takes it down inside the area very adroitly, but can’t get a shot away. Wednesday were in full panic mode as they blocked Wilson out. There’s some noise in the Amex. The visitors haven’t settled at all.
3 min: ... the ball’s hit deep. Westwood flaps a bit at the far post. The ball drops to the feet of Sidwell, whose shot from 12 yards is blocked. Then Wilson has a go from the penalty spot, but his effort is charged down too. Finally Skalak comes in from the left to meet the loose ball, but squirts his effort wide left from an agreeable angle. What bedlam! Brighton will wonder how all three of those shots stayed out.
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2 min: Skalak and Bong combine down the left to earn the first corner of the match. From which...
And we're off!
The home side get the ball rolling, and tear off upfield so quickly that Sky Sports miss the kick off! Once the cameras click onto the pitch, Brighton have lost the ball and Hunt is skittering along the right-hand touchline, chalk on his boots. He crosses deep, the ball sailing out to the left of the goal. Fortunate for Brighton that none of Hunt’s team-mates had taken a gamble there. Well, that was lively!
The teams are out! Brighton are in their famous blue and white stripes, which means Sheffield Wednesday don’t get to wear theirs. They sport black shirts with aquamarine breeches instead. It’s a crackling atmosphere at the Amex, which is bathed in evening Sussex sunshine. Blue and white flags fluttering in the stands like a giant ripple of sea foam. Gorgeous. We’ll be off in a minute. Classic, please!
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An equally relaxed Carlos Carvalhal has his turn! “Last game we played really, really well, and we created some problems for them. But they can create some problems for us also. Because they have a good team, and we have a good team too, it will be an interesting game. We are not thinking too much about Wembley. We have to focus about tonight. Afterwards, let’s see what happens. We can talk about it then.”
Chris Hughton, calm and collected, speaks! “We’ve had things go against us in the last couple of games. But we’re still in it, we’re still fighting, and we’ve got a huge opportunity here tonight. We have to win the game, but of course there has to be some caution because we’re up against a very good footballing side who know how to score goals. And they have a way of playing away from home. We don’t have to win in the first couple of minutes.”
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Albion had no luck whatsoever in the first leg, forced to play the last 30 minutes with ten men due to all those injuries. They’ll need plenty of payback tonight if they’re to become the first Championship play-off contender to overturn one of these here two-goal deficits. Not least because they have’t beaten Wednesday for nearly four years, a barren run of eight matches consisting of four wins for the Sheffield giants and four draws. Still, their last victory shows them the way: Wayne Bridge, Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Buckley the scorers in a 3-0 rout at the Amex in September 2012. That would do the trick, huh?
Some good news, some bad news for Brighton. They’d been sweating on the fitness of Tomer Hemed, Connor Goldson, Anthony Knockaert and Steve Sidwell, all injured during the first leg. It’s a 50% success rate: Knockaert and Sidwell get the all-clear to start. James Wilson, on loan from Manchester United, comes in for Hemed, while Lewis Dunk returns from suspension to replace Goldson.
Meanwhile no team has ever given up a two-goal lead in the Championship play-offs, so Wednesday will be feeling supremely confident as they prepare for this big showdown. Unsurprisingly, then, they’ve plumped for the same XI who started the first leg.
The teams
Brighton & Hove Albion: Stockdale, Bruno, Greer, Dunk, Bong, Knockaert, Sidwell, Kayal, Skalak, Baldock, Wilson.
Subs: Maenpaa, Calderon, Crofts, Rosenior, Towell, Murphy, LuaLua.
Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood, Hunt, Lees, Loovens, Pudil, Wallace, Lee, Lopez, Bannan, Hooper, Forestieri.
Subs: Wildsmith, Hutchinson, Matias, Nuhiu, Helan, Joao, Sasso.
Evening!
1991 - and Brighton’s last appearance in what is now the Championship play-off final, Notts County, Tommy Johnson, all that - seems an awfully long time ago. 1983 - and their last appearance in the English top flight, when they also came within one delicate Gordon Smith dink of the FA Cup - is an even smaller speck in the distance. It’s been a while.
Sheffield Wednesday have been patient long enough, too. One of the biggest clubs in the country in terms of support, yet they haven’t been in the Premier League since 2000. And this is the first season they’ve been anywhere near getting back. It’s been a while.
Two clubs, two longings, one dream sure to be extinguished tonight. Such is the sheer brutality of the play-offs. Brighton were the better team in the league this season: Chris Hughton’s side finished in third spot, denied automatic promotion by Middlesbrough and their superior goal difference, while Carlos Carvalhal’s Owls came home 15 points behind the Seagulls in sixth. But those 46 games count for nothing in the play-offs, and with the slate wiped clean, Wednesday were brilliant last Friday as they clinically took advantage of a Brighton injury crisis to establish a first-leg 2-0 lead at Hillsborough.
Brighton need something special tonight at the Amex, then, if they’re to make Wembley and a date almost certainly with Hull City (but still possibly Derby County). “We’ve got nothing to lose now and the pressure is completely on them,” says striker Sam Baldock, almost convincing himself. “We’re positive and we’re going to go for it. Stranger things have happened. Believe me, this tie is not over.”
Carvalhal meanwhile is also saying all the right things. “Brighton are a dangerous opponent. I do not even think about the final. I think 100% about the second leg and we are going to Brighton to give our absolute best.” A place at Wembley, to fight for a berth in next season’s Premier League, is at stake. It’s all lined up to be a classic. It’s the second leg of the play-off semis. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm BST.
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