If you motor down the M23 from Croydon, South London, you may drive to Brighton and Hove Albion FC. The two are some miles apart but the Albion, despite having rivalry along the coast and in nearby new town Crawley, regard Crystal Palace as their greatest rival. Palace is surrounded by clubs in London, but the M23 derby seems to have more meaning to them than any other Football league club.
The two teams first met in the Southern League until they both joined the Football League. At Brighton's ground in Division Three South the two teams came together on Christmas Day 1920. Palace won 2-0. They met again over the Christmas period on December 27th, with the Albion winning 3-2. The two clubs have met regularly since and in 1962 it was in Division Three.
In 1975-6 the two clubs met in the league vying for promotion to Division Two. This run of games created a rivalry between the two clubs when in the third game Peter Taylor of Brighton, who was Brian Clough's side kick until he chose to go out "on his own". Taylor bumped into the flambouyant Malcolm Allison from Palace. Both team missed out on promotion but notably the Brighton fans adopted the nickname Seagulls, from Dolphins, to counter act the Palace's chants of "Eagles".
Shortly after Terry Venables took over at Palace and Alan Mullery at Brighton. these two had played at Spurs together but there was bad blood.
There were smoke bombs thrown in the first league meeting in 1976 between the two and in FACup ties the two teams drew 2-2 at the Goldstone, then at Selhurst Park in the replay, they drew again 1-1. Due to bad weather the tie was finally settled at Stamford Bridge when Palace won 1-0. Having gone ahead Brighton had the chance to equalise when they were given a penalty. Brian Horton (remember him?) tucked the ball away but the referee had seen an encroachment by the Albion players. By all accounts the encroaching player had been "pushed" into the penalty area by an opposition member, so Horton was instructed to take the kick again, which he missed.
Mullery was furious and had to be escorted from the pitch after he confronted referee Ron Challis (later known as Challis of the Palace). He flicked two fingers at the crowd who inevitably were baiting him. He threw a few five pound notes into the Palace dressing accusing them of "buying" the referee and being a team not worth the "pawltry" few pounds he laid on the floor. Mullery I might add spoke at Charterhouse's Christian Union meeting once. Some Christian?
Later in March the two teams met again in the League and Palace ran out 3-1 winners. Both teams however were promoted to the old Division Two at the end of the season.
In the 2012-3 season during the Championship play-off two leg semi-final, the two clubs met, with Palace winning 2-0 on aggregate and the Eagles went on to beat Watford in the final, thereby promoting to the Premier League. Before this tense play off at the Amex, human excrement was found smeared over the floor of the visitors' dressing room as a welcoming gesture. Disgusted by this, Albion manager Gus Poyet went ballistic and Ian Holloway just rubbed it in!
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/18/gus-poyet-fuming-excrement-crystal-palace
The two clubs have won 37 times each and drawn 24 in all meetings.
Tonight's result will tip the balance one way or the other.
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