Hate Thy Neighbour - Part 2:
Worth Much More Than Pocket Change

In plenty of British football rivalries, close proximity is often what makes the games so tense and important, it's a battle to establish the location as your territory. Celtic Park and Ibrox are seperated by five miles, Anfield and Goodison Park just the one. So, what is it about Brighton and Crystal Palace that makes the 46 mile difference between them irrelevant? The moments. From a manager throwing coins to hero cementing performances, there's plenty of hatred to go around.

A Response-cum-Rebrand

The South Coast and South London clubs' rivalry didn't quite start to heat up until the 1970s. After 11 years apart, Palace were relegated to the third tier and the two met on opening day in 74/75. More police than usual were sent to control the 26,000 fans in attendance at the Goldstone Ground that witnessed a 1-0 Albion win.

Despite this, it would be the following season that set an everlasting change to the rivalry. Brighton's nickname up to the 1975/76 had been the Dolphins, one afternoon before a meeting with Palace would change this, as Albion supporter Charlie Palethorpe described:

"Palace fans were chanting their nickname 'Eagles' at Brighton supporters, and in just in reply Brighton just chanted back 'Seagulls' and the name stuck. It was just to get at Palace and the rest is history."

Comedian, writer and Eagles fan Jim Daly saw the moment as a logical retort:

"Well they couldn't chant 'Dophins! Dolphins! That's terrible! You couldn't even chant that at a sea life centre."

Although the comic didn't miss the opportunity to take a tongue-in-cheek jab at his foes:

"That confirms that Brighton want to be Palace. That's all they'll be, they're second string and will always be the little brother."

Mullery vs Venables: FA Cup Injustice

This was the big one. Allow me to set the scene.

Cast your mind back to early December 1976, cinemas were packed full of people watching Michael Caine star in The Eagle Has Landed, seven robbers of £8,000,000 had just been sentenced to 100 years in jail and Showaddywaddy were top of the charts with Under The Moon Of Love, but it wouldn't be love being shared under the moon when Palace and Brighton met for a FA Cup replay at Stamford Bridge.

In the summer of the same year, Terry Venables became Crystal Palace boss and Alan Mullery took over Albion. Two prior draws in the cup set up this West London decider.

Palace were 1-0 up when Brighton were awarded a penalty. It was slotted away, but the referee wasn't happy. The spot kick was forced to be re-taken due to encroachment despite the offenders being the Palace players! The goalkeeper saved the re-take. The Eagles were through and the referee Ron Challis put himself in the history books as Charlie Palethorpe noted he would be given the nickname "Challis of the Palace".

Mullery went absolutely bezerk.

As the Brighton manager walked down the tunnel he was showered with boiling coffee from the terraces and preceded to respond with two fingers of good will, he then threw down his pocket change and shouted "That's all you're worth, Crystal Palace!"

Matt Woosnam, The Athletic's Crystal Palace reporter, spoke about the impact the incident had:

"It was definitely the kickstart. It was certainly when Brighton and Palace went from two teams that didn't like each other to sides in a proper rivalry."

Jim Daly described how it's these moments that make football and its rivalries what it is:

"The beauty of football is that it's like a soap opera at times."

Play-Off boiling point & Premier League cool down

The two sides would continue to battle through the years on and off like many rivals do, but it was the 2010s where the stage became bigger.

After Albion (under Gus Poyet) and Palace (managed by Ian Holloway) finished 4th and 5th respectively in the 2012/13 Championship season, they met in the play-off semi-finals.

The first leg finished 0-0 at Selhurst Park.

We've all heard of the calm before the storm, well in the instance of the day of the second leg it was more the tremor before the earthquake. As Albion Roar host Ady Packham so beautifully asked in our interview, "have you heard about poo-gate?"

On an already very tense day for Palace, travelling away to their biggest rivals for a chance at Premier League football, it got even stranger as the team and staff found faeces across the floor of the away dressing room. It was interpreted as a tactic by the hosts to unsettle their competitiors, but Ady made clear that wasn't the case:

"The Palace coach driver had a bit of a rough belly. They had to stop on the way and when they reached the AMEX he had to leg it but didn't make it in time and a mess was duly made in the dressing room.

"Ian Holloway knew what happened, but he told the players 'look what they've done to our dressing room!' We were getting blamed for it and they probably used it as motivation."

Whether that was a driving factor or not, Palace would win 0-2 at the old enemy thanks to a brace from their hero, Wilfried Zaha.

"If you want any player to score against Brighton to win the game, it's Wilfried Zaha. They hate him" Jim Daly told me.

And hate Zaha they do, but the Eagles have the same level of dislike for the opposite skipper Lewis Dunk, as Matt Woosnam said:

"A lot of Palace fans really dislike Dunk because he's a Brighton lad, he came through the academy into their first team and he epitomises Brighton.

"Lewis Dunk and Wilfried Zaha epitomise the rivalry because they understand it."

These two club stalwarts currently represent the best of a good football rivalry, which is much needed, as Woosnam feels the Premier League has somewhat taken the edge away.

"Being in the Premier League has absoultely impacted things. It's so much more sanitised and it just feels like another game."

Although the bright lights and big money of the top flight may have put out the flame, there is still plenty of fire in these supporters and team leaders that has the potential to reignite this decades spanning rivalry.