Alright let’s dive into how I actually put together that Brighton vs Fulham timeline post. Honestly, it started simpler than you’d think, but man, it quickly turned into a proper rabbit hole.
The Spark and Early Fumbles
Right, so I was actually watching the game last weekend – you know, the nervy one that finished 1-1? They kept mentioning this “long history” between ’em, but never gave any specifics. Annoyed me, honestly. I figured, “I’ll just jot down the big moments real quick for next time.” Famous last words. Went straight to my usual footy sites.
Opened like five browser tabs, started typing dates and scores. “Okay, first time they played… gotta be early 1900s?” Turns out, nope! Found conflicting info immediately. One site claimed first meeting was FA Cup 1910, another swore it was a Division Two game in 1909! Seriously? Off to a great start already.
Digging Through the Mess
Fine, I thought. Time for actual digging. Switched from generic searches to specific “Brighton Fulham head-to-head” and “historical Brighton v Fulham results”. Pulled up the official club history pages. Big mistake. Fulham’s archive section? Minimal stuff before the 1950s, basically just said “We played loads.” Brighton’s was better, but still patchy. Found myself scrolling through fan forum threads from ten years ago – people arguing about scorelines like detectives!
Had to resort to physical books. Dragged my old “History of the Football League” tome off the shelf – dust flying everywhere. Pages practically crinkled. Found the league tables first, then painstakingly cross-referenced seasons where both teams were in the same division. Wrote dates and scores in a notepad, looked like chicken scratch. Saw stuff like that crazy 5-3 win for Fulham back in ’83 and the play-off thriller in 2018.
Building the Thing
Okay, enough scrawling. Needed to make sense of it. Created a new doc. Listed every season both teams were in the same tier. Then plugged in every single match I could verify:
- League games? Obvious ones.
- Cup clashes? Took ages finding FA Cup and League Cup ties. Missed one initially in the 60s!
- Friendlies? Mostly skipped ’em, except a couple famous pre-season tours.
Double-checked EVERYTHING. Opened another five tabs for final verification against trusted sources. Fixed typos like writing “1982” instead of “1981” for that dodgy away draw. Almost punched the screen.
The Final Stretch and Realisations
Started grouping it into eras:
- Early encounters pre-WWII
- Post-war struggles
- Yo-yo years up and down divisions
- Premier League era showdowns
Noticed the weird pattern – they kept swapping leagues like trading cards! One up, one down. Hardly ever both top flight at the same time until recently. The sheer number of draws surprised me too. Loads of them. Finally organised the full list chronologically, added short notes about standout games or controversies. Took way longer than my “quick jot” plan. Learned more about Southern Railway derbies than I ever thought possible.
Moral of the story? Never assume footy history is simple, especially with clubs like these. Records are messy, fans remember things differently, and sometimes the official history just shrugs. But finding those obscure clashes? Weirdly satisfying. Now you know why that post took me all week!