Brighton 4 – 1 Cheltenham

Brighton’s hopes for a trip to Wembley went one small step forward this evening as a good display saw us run out 4-1 winners.

Dean Wilkins made 5 changes to the starting line up and most notably rested captain Dean Hammond who was replaced by George O’Callaghan. Right-back Andrew Whing was rested with Adam El-Abd filling in for him whilst Guy Butters replaced the injured Tommy Elphick. Elsewhere Nathan Elder was picked in favour of Bas Savage and David Martot replaced Jake Robinson.

Frenchman David Martot opened the scoring after just over 10 minutes of play with a nice strike from just outside the box. He then turned provider for Albion striker Nicky Forster who latched onto the on loan Le Havre midfielders tricky cross with a powerful header past Robins ‘keeper Shane Higgs.

But our opponents grabbed a goal back just seconds before half time when Dean Sinclair played through Paul Connor whos neat finish halved the deficit.

Cheltenham started to play some good football and should have equalised through a number of chances. Although it is arguable that we also should have extended our lead, with Nathan Elder not in goal scoring form this evening as he saw plenty of efforts either saved or gone wide.

Robins goalscorer Paul Connor then had two quick chances saved by Michel Kuipers and then the woodwork with just 5 minutes remaining.

This springed Brighton back into life and we finished the game off minutes later when Nicky Forster finished superbly after being released through by Dean Cox. It was his 6th goal of the season.

Forster then turned provider for substitute Bas Savage, when his superb cross found Savage free in the area and he made no mistake in smashing the ball home and securing a fortunate 4-1 Albion victory.