I thought I’d better get to my Withdean seat as early as possible this week after the clamour for tickets to see the Albion against Villa.

You’d have thought it would have been every man or women for themselves, after those who apparently couldn’t get tickets for Villa would surely have been desperate to see the Albion.

But no, although it was a healthy enough crowd there were still too many green seats on view.

Sadly, a guy sitting not too far from me, whether he went to Villa or not I don’t know, was constantly banging on about the West Ham score, and phoning his supposedly east end mates to find out the exciting news from Upton Park.

I still don’t get this fixation some Brightonians have with the London clubs, my friend Lella O’Neill (no relation to Martin) is a Hammers fan. I’ don’t think she knows why. Like me she was brought up in Hangleton.

Will these cockerney lovers still be supporting their ‘chosen’ London teams once Falmer is open?

Or will they revert to their heritage and support their local, ambitious, debt free and community conscious club. Just like they did in 1983 1991 and 2004.

The Withdean pitch was more akin to ridiculous Sunday night T.V than professional football.

I half expected to see ‘Tucker Jenkins or that always whinging woman from Hove lagoon. You know the one that runs the cafe that sells cardboard flapjacks and wallpapers paste smoothies, that is of course just my opinion. I am sure other people find the fayre on offer very nice. If it says they should in ‘Latest Homes’.

Millwall had a player aptly named’ Trotter’ perhaps Adam Virgo was his hapless Rodney.

Gus Poyet’s technical area chats with his ‘soon to be introduced’ substitutes are becoming worth the entrance fee alone. This week episode involved wild gesticulating to Liam Dickinson and new boy Chris Holroyd, on the corner of the technical area.

Gus would make wild ‘Give us a clue’ type hand signals. Dickinson would nod and smile and then make some back. The Uruguayan would then shake his head wildly, and repeat the process. Obviously Gus is no Lionel Blair! Holroyd just looked perplexed, this continued while he was on the pitch.

The linesman on the South Stand side didn’t fancy running along the icy line, so seemed to operate as a right winger for the lions. In fact his involvement for them was just a little less subtle.

In the end the Albion lost again at home. Again to the odd, this time very odd goal.

They were unlucky with efforts cleared off the line and against the post.

But Withdean is not a nice place for anyone to do with Albion at the moment. It is however just a pitch and like any stage, professional’s must perform on it.

I think a Fans United or Flag Day is needed to put the ‘With’ back in Withdean.

That’s ‘With’ the Albion not against them. Home games are becoming an all to unfulfilling experience, and we don’t want that to get the Albion down!