As Brighton prepared to host champions Liverpool at the Amex, the latest stop of my Asian cruise had me almost 6,000 miles away in Busan, South Korea.
Busan is an extremely busy shipping port. To escape the hustle and bustle, we decided to catch an Uber to explore one of the beautiful beaches about 40 minutes away.
I would not dream of using Uber back in the United Kingdom. I always support 100 percent our black cabbies and registered taxi drivers. However, overseas it is brilliant. You know how much you are paying and it is efficient for organising travel.
The beach visit began with a walk along a pristine promenade in Humande. Not one single piece of litter was spotted. Nor was there any graffiti anywhere.
The walls and pavements were immaculate, as were every car and lorry on the roads. It puts the UK to shame.
Being an inquisitive retired detective and now a nosey qualified journalist, I began to look into why this was.
It is against the law to leave any rubbish in public in South Korea and it must be taken home with you. Yes, taken home.
Japan and South Korea have no bins in the streets and everyone follows the rules. It made me think of how overflowing those bins outside the Amex would be once the stadium emptied after the match against Liverpool concluded.
Our final part of call was the Busan Sky Tower. It cannot be missed, extending over 100 floors up with two similarly tall blocks either side.
I went to ask how much to go to the top, expecting crazy money. The cost? £12 including a coffee and popcorn on arrival in the sky lounge.
It did not seem possible at that point that Saturday would feature a bigger high than ascending above Busan. Over then to the Albion…
Back on board the Diamond Princess Cruise ship and post-dinner of prawn cocktail, roast lamb and banana split, it was time to turn into Sport 24 in the cabin… but only for the pictures.
Commentary of course had to come from BBC Radio Sussex. Warren Aspinall was back after missing the Sunderland game on holiday.
He was soon putting the additional, unexpected pre-game coverage time caused by kick off being delayed by 15 minutes because of a crash on the A27 to good use, telling us about what happens when he plays golf.
Warren only ever makes it to the third hole as his golf bag has run out of cans by that point! A different approach to the sport from the one I had when playing for a living many moons ago.
When the match did eventually get underway, it was over pretty quickly for Hugo Ekitike. James Milner acted as a one-man wrecking ball, showing no mercy by crashing into Ekitike and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Ekitike was unable to continue and so limped out of the action after only seven minutes. Not the best of starts for Liverpool – and their afternoon was about to get even worse seven minutes later.
Ferdi Kadioglu crossed to the back post. Diego Gomez was lurking and his header back across goal was nodded into the top left corner by Danny Welbeck.
The lead only lasted 15 minutes because of a massive error from Lewis Dunk. His normal safe move of heading back to Bart Verbruggen went badly wrong as Dunk failed to notice Milos Kerkez sneaking in behind. Kerkez took possession and chipped over Verbruggen to make the score 1-1.
Into the second half and Welbeck restored the Albion’s lead on 56 minutes. Pascal Gross started the move down the left, passing to Yankuba Minteh.
He crossed and Jack Hinshelwood squared back for Welbeck to strike once move. The goal was allowed to stand after a VAR check.
Brighton now had 34 minutes plus nearly eight added on to survive. They did it reasonably untroubled too thanks to a real team effort.
Verbruggen made some great saves. Jan Paul van Hecke, Kadioglu and Dunk were all excellent. The Albion will be without Dunk for two games after the international break as he serves a suspension for accruing 10 yellow cards.
This should give Olivier Boscagli a chance to show us what he can do. The Frenchman has not let Brighton down before.
Dunk will be joined in the stands for the Burnley and Spurs matches by Fabian Hurzeler, who is also now suspended for 10 bookings.
Minteh was magnificent and Milner gave a sterling performance against his old club. As for Welbeck – how he is not in the England squad I do not know.
Lastly, I must tell you about my football shirt experiment which gave particular satisfaction on Sunday morning.
Walking into the dining room on board the ship wearing Albion colours always leads to people wanting to talk about Brighton. Or to be more specific, about Kaoru Mitoma.
But before the Liverpool game, I had also been teased by some of the chefs singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at me.
Funnily enough, they were nowhere to be seen the following day. Brighton had silenced both Reds supporters at home and in the middle of the Sea of Japan.
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
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About The Author
Tony attended his first Brighton game in 1965, aged nine. Now in his 70s, he has watched the club go through ups and downs from afar before becoming a season ticket holder in 2021.
A retired police detective, he is now qualified as a freelance journalist and has published several books about the Albion. Tony is also a semi-regular contributor to the Final Whistle programme on BBC Radio Sussex and has appeared on the Albion Unlimited Podcast.