Rivalry between Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace ‘among the biggest’

The distance between the two clubs may be 45 miles (72.4 kilometres), but fans of Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion say their rivalry is among the greatest in football.

It’s a feud born of the FA Cup drama of the 1970s and the bitter rivalry between former Tottenham Hotspur stars Terry Venables and Alan Mullery, and it shows no signs of abating.

Palace fan Dan Cook, who runs the HLTCO podcast, said: “The people who wrote the game off are doing so out of ignorance.”

The two teams will meet on Sunday in the Premier League, where one point separates them.

“It’s the game I always look forward to the most,” said Seagulls fan Russell Jeffer, who hosts the Brighton Rock Podcast.

But he said that explaining the rivalry to fans of other clubs had become “tiresome.”

“It definitely seems to confuse people because it’s not seen as the team’s closer,” he said.

Mr. Gever still meets fans of other clubs and says this is not a real competition.

“I just make fun of them and tell them they’re wrong,” he said.

“It absolutely is. It definitely is. It’s felt as keenly by our fans and their fans as the other competitors in the country.”

The story of the rivalry goes back to 1976, when the two teams played each other five times.

Palace were managed by Venables while Brighton were led by Mullery, who although a teammate at Tottenham was never on friendly terms.

It was the FA Cup first round match that year that caused the original controversy.

Instead of resorting to extra time and penalty kicks to determine the winner, the matches will be replayed in the event of a tie, and in the end Crystal Palace beat Brighton 1-0 in the third match.

In a recent clash between the two sides, Palace, coached by Wilfried Zaha, knocked Brighton out of the Championship play-offs en route to securing promotion to the Premier League in 2013.

But before the game, the Eagles were greeted with feces in the locker room.

Kieran Maguire, who co-hosts The Price of Football podcast, is a season ticket holder at Brighton.

He said that Sunday’s match was “the derby match that no one can understand except Palace and Brighton fans.”

He adds that this hostility manifests itself in the “birthright” that is passed down through families.

However, there was “grudging respect” between the two sides.

“Neither of us are glamor clubs. We both know that, to some extent, we may be living on borrowed time in the Premier League and making the most of it while we’re there.”

He also said there were few other options for Brighton, given that Southampton and Portsmouth were “too busy hating each other” and Bournemouth were not a “rival” team.

“You can’t hate Bournemouth,” he said.

“There’s nothing they don’t like.”

Palace fan Dan Cook did not hesitate to define the relationship between the two clubs.

“We hate Brighton and Brighton hate us,” he said.

“It’s not a derby, unlike when we play Charlton or Millwall. It’s a competition, not the M23 derby as people outside the clubs seem to call it.

“There is a sense of pride because of the journey both clubs have been on in the last few years.”

Nigel Summer, chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters Club, also said that despite the animosity, both sets of supporters respect each other as part of the football family.

He said: “When they were down, a lot of Brighton fans would dive into buckets and contribute for them, and when we were in big trouble in the late 1990s, there were a lot of Palace fans who were rooting for us.”

Both clubs have seen a significant improvement in fortunes in recent years, with Brighton seen as a conveyor belt of talent and a successful business model in the era of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

Meanwhile, Palace had a memorable season last year, winning their first ever FA Cup title.

The two teams now occupy ninth and tenth places in the English Premier League.

Palace fan and comedian Kevin Day said the fact that both clubs had similar fortunes over the years meant there was a “weird mutual pride” between fans.

But he added: “For the first time in a while, we now have bragging rights and I’m sure we’ll be singing about our FA Cup win for at least the first 20 minutes of the game.”