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LuaLua rescues late point

9:40pm Tuesday 14th February 2012 in Albion By Brian Owen

Kazenga LuaLua performs his traditional celebration after scoring late on (photos Simon Dack) Kazenga LuaLua performs his traditional celebration after scoring late on (photos Simon Dack)

Kazenga LuaLua fired his first league goal of the season to rescue a point for Albion tonight.

The substitute rifled home a centrally placed free-kick from just outside the box to salvage a 2-2 draw against lively Millwall at The Amex.

Sam Vokes opened his account for the club as the Seagulls twice came from behind to remain undefeated in 2012.

But a point was the most they deserved from a faltering display.

Albion were second best in the opening half and went behind on 23 minutes when they failed to deal with a corner and Andy Keogh headed home.

Inigo Calderon was by far the hosts' biggest attacking threat from right-back and his low cross was shot narrowly wide on the turn by Vokes.

Calderon also popped up in the middle to force the rebound wide after Ashley Barnes' shot was blocked by keeper David Forde.

Keogh wasted a great chance to extend the lead early in the second half and Albion quickly punished him with their 52nd minute leveller.

Alan Navarro let fly from outside the box and the ball deflected kindly into the path of Vokes, who calmly turned it past the wrong-footed keeper.

Millwall, though, continued to look lively going forward and were back ahead on 64 minutes as Liam Feeney turned home a low cross right in front of their delirious fans in the South Stand.

That looked likely to be the winner until LuaLua, just two minutes after coming on, made the most of a free-kick won by Ashley Barnes.

Comments(30)

brighton-barca says...
9:45pm Tue 14 Feb 12

You read here it here first – see Brighton Barca at10:29am Tue 14 Feb 12
“i have got superstitious feeling however that tonight might be an anticlimactic draw, followed by great performance at Anfield, and result at Hull”

but it is up from here for the rest of the season... you read it here first !!!

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rolivan says...
9:45pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Minds on Anfield instead of Amex?

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PressBoxTeaBoy says...
10:08pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Terrible performance tonight but remaining positive, we've secured 17 points from 21 available points in 2012, 5 wins and 2 draws, thats 2.4 pts per game, still unbeaten in 2012, no major injuries, and onwards we go.
Keep that up and we'll have a promotion chance of some kind, I'm sure.
It is was a bit of a strange line up tonight though. After waiting till 2012 to see Gus play with some proper width, we revert back to to the previous structure of no wingers at all.
We defended poorly, nobody really stood out tonight, we deserved nothing more than we got, so move on and plot the next challenge.
Vicente ? I mean honestly, he's played what, 60 mins in the last two weeks, and now missing again ? I would at least feel better if we had Caskey available when Vicente isn't. We were probably worse in midfield than anywhere else and needed something creative ?
I know it's fairly obvious but the prospect of wanting to be involved at Liverpool on Saturday was probably evident for a few, even Gus I suspect, based on that line up ?

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GovindaTim says...
10:08pm Tue 14 Feb 12

The sign of a good team is that they can play poorly and still come away with a point. Roll on Anfield.

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FC Inter ya Nan says...
10:19pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Not sure, dodgy team selection i think

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Aylesburyseagull says...
10:30pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Something tells me that Maybe the team selection tonight was due to the game coming on Sunday - maybe Gus is keeping his cards VERY close to his chest as I am sure the scouser scouts would have been there tonight and he didn't want to tip our hand!!!! Just a thought

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sussexram40 says...
10:31pm Tue 14 Feb 12

We needed 3 points tonight. Lucky to get 1.Gus needs to turn things around fast. Cant see us getting a result at Anfield after tonights display.

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GovindaTim says...
10:34pm Tue 14 Feb 12

sussexram40 wrote:
We needed 3 points tonight. Lucky to get 1.Gus needs to turn things around fast. Cant see us getting a result at Anfield after tonights display.
Gus needs to turn things around fast???? What planet have you been living on?

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tonytowner1 says...
10:44pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Yes, one of the odder line ups of the season. At home against one of the lower teams in the league with a defence that is perfectly exposable - without reflecting too long on the unfortunate poor passing and first touches in defence for us and one of those evenings where virtually every loose ball seemed to end up with the opposition - to start with no Buckley, Noone, Lua Lua, Vicente, Forster Caskey and the bite of El Abd was unusual to say the least. A lack of incisiveness - was there a single occasion we really went past them drilling with the ball and in to a truly dangerous position in the box? It felt we had a little too much assumptiveness and arrogance at the start that dwindled as the match went on when we realised that we couldn't really trouble them too much and that they were troubling us more than we had expected. A fairly subdued performance from the home crowd too!!

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graham w says...
10:47pm Tue 14 Feb 12

gus knows tonights team selection didnt work, added to that some very poor performances at the back , dunc, plus a midfield that was misfiring all night , plus the fact no width in game only calders swinging balls in , instead of a out and out winger getting behind and crossing from byline, lucky seagulls, but we are still unbeaten just.

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SMF20 says...
10:54pm Tue 14 Feb 12

I enjoyed the game tonight as I always do but sadly I think Gus got it wrong tonight. The 4-3-3 just didn't work and made Millwall look far better than they are, I thought in the 1st half the game passed navs by and so I was a little surprised he was awarded mom.
On a much more positive note, we are far far better than we showed tonight, just need that width back and that driving midfielder to accomodate this formation.
Up the albion.

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keswick says...
11:00pm Tue 14 Feb 12

SMF20 wrote:
I enjoyed the game tonight as I always do but sadly I think Gus got it wrong tonight. The 4-3-3 just didn't work and made Millwall look far better than they are, I thought in the 1st half the game passed navs by and so I was a little surprised he was awarded mom.
On a much more positive note, we are far far better than we showed tonight, just need that width back and that driving midfielder to accomodate this formation.
Up the albion.
Don't know what product the match sponsors make but if Navs as MoM I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

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Carter_Cooldancer says...
11:05pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Fortunate, very fortunate.

Gus got it wrong tonight IMO. Millwall's midfield domintaed the game, and especially that big old unit, Trotter, he was excellent.

Millwall's fans were excellent too.

Player ratings.

Brez - 6 - got down well to a couple of raspers but was back to his flapping worst tonight. Crosses are his achiles heel. He could have and probably should have caught the cross which led to their goal.
Mattock - 7 - played well and easily oour best left back.
Calderon - 6 - Should have scored, got into good positions and put in some good balls. Defended ok.
Dunk - 5 - Really off his game today and given a 5 for very poor distribution throughout.
Greer - 6 - Solid but was nowhere for second goal.
Bridcutt - 6 - Swamped in midfield and was off the pace second half.
Navarro - 6 - Can't beleive the sponsors gave him MOM.
Reyes - 5 - He is not a central midfielder. Wayward passes and not surpised he was hauled off.
Barnes - 7 - Thought he had a decent game and other than Vokes he was our best player.
CMS - 5 - Did nothing and got nowhere near a chance.
Vokes - 8 - My MOM - Did everything a good centre forward should do. Ran his socks off too.
Subs
Noone - 6 - Hardly got a touch
Lua Lua - 7 - Lucky to score as bad keeper error. Other than that, hardly touched the ball as he was brought on far too late in game to run at full backs.
Adgestein - 7 - Lively and looked dangerous.

Poyet - 4 - Bad decision with team selection. No wingers?? Wrong. No Vicente? Wrong. Leaving Lua Lua on bench until 85th minute? Wrong.

Reasons to be cheerful as a Brighton fan - countless. Can't wait for the trip to Anfield on Sunday.

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keswick says...
11:05pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Not a great performance to say the least but at least we are still unbeaten this year. Thought the midfield was wrong from the start and would have preferred to start with either Kaz or Nooney. I'm not convinced that CMS will still be with us in August, something seems wrong there to me.

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falmer seagull says...
11:06pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Agree with most posts this was our worst display to date. People clammering for support for CMS with Vokes got it tonight, but no wide player? The idea, I am sure, was for the fullbacks to overlap. Dunks worst match, distribution apalling. The only bright light was Mattock at left back, seems well capable in defence and attack. We will have to put this down as a bad day at the office. Team selection questionable, with no wide player. Onwards and uopwards.

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graham w says...
11:23pm Tue 14 Feb 12

i think we all agree, bad team selection, vokes my mom, we move on..seagulls........

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pablobrowno says...
11:49pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Sign up Mattock pronto if poss, definitely a good championship and poss premiership quality player.

Harsh on El Abd that he is surely unlikely to feature with Reyes, calde, mattock, Greer and dunk all fit. Although arguably of he'd been on instead of Dunk tonight the result may have been different!

Who can complain about the position we are in though, wonderful time to be a Brighton fan, and how we all deserve it!

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pablobrowno says...
12:02am Wed 15 Feb 12

One other observation. I don't think CMS came back out to applaud the fans tonight. Or am I wrong? Andy Naylor mentioned on twitter he didn't look too happy when he came off, not that he would!

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PressBoxTeaBoy says...
1:35am Wed 15 Feb 12

keswick wrote:
SMF20 wrote:
I enjoyed the game tonight as I always do but sadly I think Gus got it wrong tonight. The 4-3-3 just didn't work and made Millwall look far better than they are, I thought in the 1st half the game passed navs by and so I was a little surprised he was awarded mom.
On a much more positive note, we are far far better than we showed tonight, just need that width back and that driving midfielder to accomodate this formation.
Up the albion.
Don't know what product the match sponsors make but if Navs as MoM I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
I don't think we could safely award MOM to anyone really ! They were all very mediocre at best, and downright poor in the most part. I say give it to Vicente for that great manouvre in dodging another game.
If he or anyone was being " saved " for Liverpool, then it was a big mistake in my opinion. Those 3 points tonight were a preference over the FA Cup.

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tonytowner1 says...
7:31am Wed 15 Feb 12

How have the results been when El Abd has been in the team? Curious decision to leave him out!!

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NickA18 says...
8:24am Wed 15 Feb 12

Performance was not great, but there were some positives. It was nice to see us pressing teams and moving forward with the ball more often, but too many sloppy passes here and there, and sloppy defending that led to both goals. Really impressed with Vokes though, exactly the type of player we need upfront, winning the long balls and muscleing out defenders. Shame we didnt use the wings tonight though, we looked too bogged down in midfield.

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wiltshire seagull says...
9:42am Wed 15 Feb 12

Aylesburyseagull wrote:
Something tells me that Maybe the team selection tonight was due to the game coming on Sunday - maybe Gus is keeping his cards VERY close to his chest as I am sure the scouser scouts would have been there tonight and he didn't want to tip our hand!!!! Just a thought
Good point mate, considering the strange
team selection tonight. On a POI, how do opposition team scouts get tickets when fans can't, lol? Onwards and upwards, excited about Sunday but would prefer us to get into the play-offs even if I personally believe it's too early for us to gain promotion, parachute payments or not.
(That should start a debate, methinks......:0))

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Albion fan in London says...
9:48am Wed 15 Feb 12

GovindaTim wrote:
The sign of a good team is that they can play poorly and still come away with a point. Roll on Anfield.
Well said that man! Great start to 2012 glimmers of the team that had the guile that won the league last season- I dont remember many sides that have scored so many late goals either

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LACHANCE says...
11:42am Wed 15 Feb 12

one off those nights but Guss has to try out new formations last night it did not work.Millwall had controll of the mid-field and they were a better team on the night.We will play a lot better on Saturday and a draw would be good so we can bring them back to the Amex.l sill think we will be in the top four by the middle of March.Forward and up.

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CAKEBEARD says...
12:00pm Wed 15 Feb 12

Good of West Sussex Litho to sponsor the game but to award Navarro MOM was a bit of a joke and only goes to perpetuate Albion fans and staff (Gus) belief that he's any good. Ryan Harley is the man!

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tooncgull says...
12:25pm Wed 15 Feb 12

Not sure whether its been corrected or not, but my "newspaper" version of the Argus this morning blames Bridcutt, twice, for the miskicked shank back into the box that gave Millwall their first goal. I thought it was Navarro. Havent seen it since, but was surprised Nav got MoM. Positives? Liverpool would have taken one look at that performance, smiled and gone off to bed thinking the tie was in the bag. Hopefully it'll all be as different as the Saints game after the dire 2-0 defeat away at bottom placed Coventry ....

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SicklySeagull says...
2:39pm Wed 15 Feb 12

I had been waiting to see both Lau and Noone playing together at home and attended last night as i thought they would cause Millwall huge problems,very disappointed with the team selected, we are hardly going to be promoted or win the Cup but some flowing attractive football would be a bonus.

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FalmerFever says...
4:00pm Wed 15 Feb 12

After last nights match I am pleased I dont have to make that long trip to Liverpool,at least by leaving a few mins early I was straight on a bus.
Liverpool must be feeling very confident after watching our display last night

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Cabin fever says...
4:43pm Wed 15 Feb 12

SicklySeagull and FalmerFever, you sound like a right couple of loyal supporters.

Suggest you take stock and look at the season as a whole, as opposed to giving up on them on the basis on one poor performance.

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gordongull says...
7:20pm Wed 15 Feb 12

wiltshire seagull wrote:
Aylesburyseagull wrote:
Something tells me that Maybe the team selection tonight was due to the game coming on Sunday - maybe Gus is keeping his cards VERY close to his chest as I am sure the scouser scouts would have been there tonight and he didn't want to tip our hand!!!! Just a thought
Good point mate, considering the strange
team selection tonight. On a POI, how do opposition team scouts get tickets when fans can't, lol? Onwards and upwards, excited about Sunday but would prefer us to get into the play-offs even if I personally believe it's too early for us to gain promotion, parachute payments or not.
(That should start a debate, methinks......:0))
Opinions are based on circumstances which are constantly changing, Wiltshire Seagull.
You won't get many takers to discuss promotion or parachute payments today.
Any predictions based on a fit Vicente could require some re-evaluation.

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