Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.–Crystal Palace F.C. rivalry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Brighton & Hove Albion–Crystal Palace rivalry, sometimes nicknamed the A23 derby or the M23 derby only by the media,[2][3] is the rivalry between English football teams Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace.[4]
Location | Southern England |
---|---|
Teams | Brighton & Hove Albion Crystal Palace |
First meeting | 25 December 1920 Southern Football League Brighton & Hove Albion 0–2 Crystal Palace[1] |
Latest meeting | 3 February 2024 Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion 4–1 Crystal Palace |
Stadiums | Falmer Stadium (Brighton) Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace) |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 141 |
Most wins | Crystal Palace (51) |
All-time series | Brighton & Hove Albion: 50 Draw: 40 Crystal Palace: 51 |
Largest victory | Crystal Palace 6–0 Brighton & Hove Albion Third Division (South) (11 February 1950) |
Although the two clubs have played each other since 1905, the rivalry did not become serious until the mid-1970s, although the two clubs were paired together in the Football League's Jubilee Fund matches of 1938 and 1939, held to celebrate 50 years of the Football League. Roy Hodgson, formerly manager of Palace, has stated that he does not recall any such rivalry with Brighton as a Palace fan in the 1950s–60s.[5] The two clubs didn't face each other from 1963 until 1974 when Palace's first game in the Third Division for 10 years was at Brighton. Palace lost and the following season their first league defeat was also against Brighton. After failing to gain promotion in either season, in May 1976, Terry Venables (aged 33) was appointed manager of Crystal Palace and two months later, his former England and Tottenham Hotspur teammate Alan Mullery (aged 34) was appointed manager at Brighton. Under the guidance of their ambitious young managers, both clubs, the two best supported in the division, climbed from the Third Division to the First Division within three years.[6]
The two teams are unusually distant for an English football rivalry, but until Crawley Town were promoted to the Football League in 2011, Crystal Palace was the nearest Football League club to Brighton, about 40 miles north. South coast outfit Portsmouth are 50 miles away, and Gillingham are 74 miles. The A23 derby and M23 derby names sometimes used by the media, come from the A23 road and the M23 motorway between Sussex and south London. While the A23 does connect Brighton to Croydon (where Crystal Palace's stadium is located), the M23 does not directly connect to either location, running between the M25 and Crawley. Though many media sources use these names to refer to the rivalry, they are not used by fans of either team.[2]
As at 2024, the clubs have been roughly equal in their head-to-head results over the years.