Some supporters might argue that Ryan Harley is the last piece of the jigsaw of Gus Poyet’s emerging team. It is definitely true that Poyet has been after this elegant player for sometime: “It’s no secret that we have been interested in Ryan for some time now. We were close in January, but he went to Swansea City because they were in the Championship – and that was understandable, any player wants to play at the highest level they possibly can. However, their promotion to the Premiership meant that he may have had to wait longer for his opportunity, and it is clear Ryan wants to play.”
After signing Harley, Brendan Rodgers sent him back to Exeter City on loan where he scored four goals in fourteen games. Surprisingly, Rodgers never selected Harley for Swansea and last Monday, Poyet got him for an undisclosed fee. The following day he made his debut against Sunderland. Poyet pointed out: We know what he is about, he is a player who likes to get on the ball and make things happen. He has a great range of passing – and he will complement the players already here.” Harley did not look match fit against Sunderland and would have been unlikely to have started against Peterborough if it had not been for Romain Vincelot dislocating his elbow.
Harley made his presence felt in the second minute when he fed Calderon whose cross was hit over the bar by Barnes. Five minutes later Harley found Noone with a clever pass on the left wing and this time Barnes fired the cross wide.
However, Brighton did not have to wait long for the opening goal. Peterborough’s goalkeeper, Paul Jones, cleared the ball straight to Noone, standing on the left-wing. He ran across the pitch and when no one attempted to close him down, he decided to shoot from 20 yards. At first it seemed he had not hit it hard enough but Jones was slow getting down and it crept in just inside the post.
Harley was at the centre of all Brighton’s best moments in the opening stages of the game. When he moves forward with the ball at his feet his upright stance with his head held high, Harley reminds me of Trevor Brooking, or even a young Gus Poyet. There was one moment in the first-half when Harley was moving forward towards the Peterborough goal with the ball at his feet. Painter had made an overlapping run on the left-wing and was screaming for the ball. However, he coolly waited until the defender advanced to a position where he was unable to cut-out the finely weighted pass to enable Painter to cross the ball into the goalmouth. The chance was not taken but you could not fail to be impressed by the way he timed this excellent pass. He is also someone who refuses to be hurried into making a mistake.
Despite the early goal Brighton did not dominate Peterborough. Grant McCann and George Boyd tended to run the midfield and Gabriel Zakuani and Ryan Bennett kept Barnes and Mackail-Smith quiet for long periods of the game. Mark Little, an athletic right-back, made several dangerous runs that seemed to unsettle Painter. However, Peterborough failed to open up Brighton with any quality balls into the box and they were restricted to having long shots from outside the area. The best of these was McCann’s beautifully struck shot in the 36th minute that Casper Ankergren managed to push round the post.
Boyd went off injured soon afterwards but the 18-year-old Ryan Tunnicliffe, on loan from Manchester United (not a bad idea to employ a manager who is the son of Sir Alex Ferguson), was an able deputy, and Peterborough continued to have their fair share of possession. The fact that this was not turned into good chances was largely due to the good defensive work of Liam Bridcutt, Gordon Greer and the highly impressive Lewis Dunk.
In the 64th minute Tommy Rowe fouled Ashley Barnes, 30 yards from goal. If Paul Jones had done his homework he would have realised that Harley had scored several goals from this range for Exeter City. Even if he had done this, it is unlikely that he would have stopped Harley’s magnificent curling free-kick into the top corner.
Harley, who had already been showing signs of tiring, was replaced by Matt Sparrow in the 72nd minute. Brighton’s best attacker, Noone, was also sacrificed in order to get a more defensively minded Alan Navarro on the pitch. This made it more difficult for Peterborough in midfield and they were only able to carve out one real opening but Rowe failed to get a good connection and the ball trickled wide of the post.
Brighton’s 2-0 victory enabled them to top the league. After obtaining 13 from a possible 15 points, it probably seems churlish to criticise the team. However, there are a few worrying points about the performances so far this season. The most worrying aspect is the fact that the opposition usually has more of the ball that Brighton. Against Peterborough it was 46%-54%. It was the same with the other two home games against Blackpool and Doncaster Rovers. It is questionable whether we can cope against the better teams in the division without including a ball-winner in midfield. I am also not convinced that Marcos Painter and Casper Ankergren are good enough at this level. We will know if Poyet shares this view by the signings he makes before the deadline on Wednesday.
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