The last ever meeting between the sides at the DIY store, err sorry, Goldstone, took place in July 1995. Guess what? Another really crap performance, but still the Eagles managed a 1-0 victory thanks to Bruce Dyer - the following games resounded to the terrace chant of "Drinks lots of Holsten, Scores at the Goldstone" to the tune of Robin Hood.

Midway through the season, Liam Brady, the new messiah who was supposed to lead them out of Division Two looked to be doing a grand job. Perhaps no-one told him that they were supposed to leave by the front door not the tradesman entrance, ah but then this is Brighton we are talking about.

Midway through the season Brady had to make way for Jimmy Case, although strangely Brady turned up again as part of a consortium bidding for the Club. The fans unrest began to swell unpleasantly as the Goldstone eyesore was sold for development without a new ground being agreed. A ground-sharing link with Portsmouth was muted, but in the final game of the season with Brighton already relegated, their fans poured onto the pitch in numbers and caused the abandonment of a game crucial to the other relegation places in the division. The league were not amused and slapped a suspended points deduction on the Club.

At the start of the following season, things really began to hot up as the fans became more orchestrated in their campaign to oust who they believed to be the principal villians of the piece, Archer Bellotti. Both were targeted for abuse and even death threats, match-by-match demonstrations and set-pieces were executed until the inevitable happened, more fans strayed onto the pitch causing a long delay to another game. The FA were unbending and handed out a two point deduction - despite much wailing and many appeals the ruling was not overturned. The deduction wouldn't really count for too much if the 'Weeds had not been fighting for their League existence. Once again, Brighton failed to perform on the pitch and coming into the last four weeks of the season were five points adrift at the foot of Division Three, with yet another manager, Steve Gritt at the helm.

Palace fans invented their own song to rejoice in Brighton's plight (to the tune of the Laughing Policeman):

"I know a fat old Policeman, he's always on the beat,
That fat jolly red-faced man, he really is treat,
You'll always find him laughing, he's never known to frown,
The reason for his jollity is Brighton going down ...
AH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH! HA!" (ad lib to fade)

Surprisingly though, the ex-Charlton man kept them in the League with a string of home victories. They stayed at the expense of Hereford, whom they played away on the last game of the season. A 1-1 draw was enough to keep them in the League thanks to a superior number of goals scored. The following week, the dentists in and around Croydon were full of patients having teeth ungritted.

Whilst the ownership battle headed for a reasonably amicable resolution after months of arbitration, the question about where they would play next season was still in the air. Earlier in the season, Brighton announced they would be ground-sharing with Gillingham, but the new consortium then wanted to move to Hove Dog-track (appropriate really) instead. Gillingham demanded the full rent as per their original agreement, so Brighton had little option but to go there to play - a round trip of over 150 miles.

When their fans arrived at Priestfield for their first friendly, who should they find giving piss-take interviews to the local radio and TV stations, but US! The inaugural game at their temporary home was a friendly against Palace at the distinctly unfriendly time of noon on a Saturday morning (Police advice again). Only about 400 Brighton fans bothered which meant they were just about outnumbered by the 600 or so Palace fans. In terms of atmosphere it was more like a reserve game.

Neither side seemed too bothered on the pitch in temperatures of over 90 degrees and when Palace fell behind, they took most of the match struggling to find a way back. Thankfully they managed this, albeit in the last few moments of the game. Brighton's bete-noire, Bruce Dyer, popped up to head home from close range. Up to this point in time there had never been more than one division between the two sides, but with Palace having one of their brief Premiership sojourns and Brighton glued to the wrong end of the third division table, they were almost separated by a league!

Doncaster Rovers fulfilled the trap-door spot from quite early on, but Brighton couldn't struggle out of 23rd place at all. The following season, saw Brighton under the stewardship of another anti-Christ - Brian Horton and he dragged them up to amongst the play-off hopefuls. Horton, in the end, showed his true colours as a "Seagull" manager - Flew in, made a lot of noise, shat all over everyone and flew away again - off to join the mighty glamour club, Port Vale.

Brighton had also finally moved back "home" to the Withdean Stadium (capacity 7,000) with space for up to 700 away fans! What would the police advise about this, if we were to play them there, we wondered? In Season 2000/01 we so nearly found out. Brighton, under the stewardship of Mickey Adams, led Brighton out of Division 3 as Champions, albeit after runaway leaders Chesterfield had been hauled back by the League for Finanacial misdemeanours. Palace on the other hand, had a terrible season and coming into the last week of the season were firmly esconsed in the relegation zone.

On the morning of Sunday 6th May, the Seaweeds paraded their trophy through the streets of Brighton and afterwards their supporters settled in pubs everywhere to watch Palace get relegated to Division 2, thereby setting up two mouth-watering encounters. For 87 minutes, the party was in full swing, then Dougie Freedman worked his magic and the pubs of Brighton emptied fast! Worst still the consolation prize of Portsmouth getting relegated was also snatched away leaving Brighton again, derby-less, and facing a long schlepp up to West Yorkshire next season. Even their most hated team in Division 3, Leyton Orient couldn't manage a Play off final win which would have given the 'Weeds something to look forward to.

The following season, despite losing Manager Mickey Adams to the Assistant Manager's job at Leicester, they employed former Palace legend Peter Taylor, who got them promoted as Champions before also walking out on them. This meant there would be two more Palace Brighton encounters to look forward too and answer to the question of how the Police would cope at the Withdean. Another ex-Palace was appointed as Manager - Martin Hinshelwood promoted from their Youth team.

After a poor losing sequence Hinshelwood was kicked upstairs, then the unthinkable happened - they went and appointed Steve Coppell a couple of weeks before our home game with them. He duly signed up an out of contract Simon Rodger and so there were two former Palace heroes visiting us. Given our penchant for allowing ex-players to score this was a worry, but as it turned out all fears were groundless. Brighton were pitiful and got thrashed 5-0 in our biggest win against them since WWII! AJ bagged a hat-trick and the date 26 October 2002 went down in Palace history as '5-0 day'.

The return match saw our first ever visit to the god-awful Withdean in March 2003. The Police presence was surprisingly much smaller than the 1,200 or so officers who greeted Brighton at Selhurst. With Palace's play off chances all but extinguished, this was a dour affair. Danny Granville got himself sent off and endeared himself to the Palace faithful by telling the jeering Bringhton fans near the tunnel to "F**k Off". Despite the man advantage Brighton never looked like scoring and were relegated on the last day of the season, depsite a late rally, which made Steve Coppell a bit of a local hero.

That didn't last, he went to join Reading as replacement for Alan Pardew and in came Mark McGhee, but it was off-field activity that was vexing their fans more. The plans for the new ground at Falmer had been referred to a National Inquiry by a Public Enquiry, the outcome of which was to re-open the Public Enquiry to examine other possible sites (you couldn't make this up) resulting in more delays . Brighton bounced straight back through the play-offs into Division 1, only to find that we had already left the Division by the gentlemen's exit, promoted into the Premiership.

Of course, as tradition dictates, Palace got themselves relegated from the Premiership straight away, whilst Brighton after being comfortable mid-table at Xmas, managed to take it right to the last day of the season before narrowly ensuring their survival.

Both games in the 2005/2006 season were scheduled early and despite being on a winning streak at the time, Palace elected to play like a bunch of show-ponies in the home fixture and handed the Weed a 1-0 win, their first at Selhurst since 1985. However, the return leg, which was televised live on Sky, brought forth a swift restoration of order and the beating of a long-held jinx. Brighton's 42 year run of not losing a League game to palace at home was finally ended in style by 'Jobi in the last minute'. Despite twice falling behind, Palace battled back and claimed a deserved winner with practically the last kick of the game.

Happier news for the 'weeds, was they finally got permission to build a ground at Falmer. In a way it's good news for both clubs, as Palace will no longer have to suffer a pitiful ticket allocation and even worse at the athletics tracks that is the Withdean.

There have been other hatreds than have occasionally burned bright enough to appear to temporarily eclipse the 'Weeds. Those that have been around a few years will cite Southampton and QPR after bitter cup defeats, Arsenal after Wrighty defected attracting large amounts of vocal bile and Man United after that french twat assaulted one of our supporters. But they all faded eventually. There will be a sizeable possee singing about going off to war with Brighton, at every game there will be a chorus of "The famous Alan Mullery". Brighton is still the result most Palace fans look for and delight in when they've lost.

Sorry also to AFC Wimbledon, Charlton and Millwall - you are merely pretenders at the throne of our only true rivals - Brighton Hove Albion - Why? Quite simply "Because of Boxing Day".