Albion Rewind: Adam El-Abd

Adam El-Abd was a mainstay of the side that won the League One title in 2010/11. He looks back at a dramatic game which clinched promotion, against relegation-threatened Dagenham & Redbridge nine years ago today.

Luke Nicoli

2020-04-12T11:00:00Z

Adam El-Abd celebrates promotion.

Albion were riding the crest of the wave by the time Dagenham & Redbridge visited the Theatre of Trees.

The Seagulls were in the throes of a ten-game unbeaten run which had included eight successive wins – a post-war club record. The final victory of the sequence had come at the Daggers’ home in late March, Glenn Murray scoring the only goal of an edgy game.

The return came just three games later and the equation was simple; victory would secure promotion to the Championship... but it would prove far from plain sailing against a side fighting for their lives to stay in the division.

“On paper, people would have expected us to cruise to victory, but we’d seen in the first game that they were a dangerous team,” recalls Brightonian El-Abd.

“They had some good players; the likes of Romain Vincelot, John Akinde and Darren Currie, and on a tight, bobbly pitch we just got over the line.

“By the time of the return they still had a chance of staying up, so we were expecting them to give it everything again. On paper and on form we would have been strong favourites, but Dagenham had nothing to lose, knowing the pressure was on us to win promotion in front of our own fans.”

El-Abd challenges John Akinde.

Albion came into the game on the back of an impressive 2-0 home win against one of the pre-season promotion favourites, Sheffield Wednesday, which heightened the anticipation further. Yet as the game got underway, the crackle of ‘Good Old Sussex by the Sea’ from the South Stand quickly dissipated.

“They scored from their first attack and we really struggled to get back on top,” Adam recalls of Akinde’s deflected first-minute opener. “We were jittery and not as fluid as in the games before, where we were dominating possession and just enjoying our football.

“In those games, we were not really thinking of promotion whereas now we all knew what was at stake. I’m sure the fans were expecting us to win by three or four but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Dagenham gave us a hell of a fright.”

Albion celebrate Liam Bridcutt's goal against Dagenham.

While Albion got back on track with a quickfire double from Inigo Calderon and Murray, the Daggers responded after the breakthrough another deflected effort, this time from Jon Nurse.

El-Abd then gave away a penalty which Danny Green tucked away, only for Liam Bridcutt to respond with an unstoppable 25-yard drive. Sub Ashley Barnes then headed Albion into the lead, bringing a frenzied spell of goalmouth action to a close, but there was still 30 minutes of football to play.

“It was a long half-hour!” recalls Adam, who these days is hoping to see out the season at League Two strugglers Stevenage. “We had a chance to make it 5-3 but Dagenham also had their chances and the jitters were there until that final whistle blew.

“When it did, there was this sense of relief but mainly joy – it was such a great feeling. The fans invaded the pitch and it was one big party.

“The party continued in the city that night, but we were also mindful that we had a game on the Saturday to win the title at Walsall. Our focus soon turned to that match and we ended up putting in a really professional performance to win the game [3-1]. I remember Elliott Bennett scoring a ‘worldy’ at the end. It was the perfect way to wrap the title up.”

The side celebrate the Dagenham victory.

Albion were crowned champions, but it proved to be a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show for the team – winless in their final four games – and for El-Abd personally, who had been struggling with a foot injury since the Sheffield Wednesday game.

“I’d broken my foot and didn’t realise,” he reveals. “After the Wednesday game I had a scan, and nothing showed up but it got progressively worse to the point where I was getting a sharp pain every time I tried to push off.

“After the Walsall game, I played against Southampton [Albion losing 2-1] and it really was causing me a lot of discomfort and affecting my performances. I then had a CT scan which revealed the foot was broken. It put me on crutches for the title celebrations at the end of the season and I would not play again for seven months.”

It put on hold Adam’s chances of playing at the newly opened Amex Stadium until late November, but the injury failed to dampen the achievements of a campaign in which he played 37 league matches and was crowned the club’s Player of the Season.

“It was a great season and one I’ll never forget,” Adam recalls. “There were other teams who had bigger budgets than us, but we knew from the way we finished the previous season that we had a chance.

“Look back at the team: Muzza, Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood could score goals; Liam Bridcutt and Gary Dicker were immense in midfield; Elliott Bennett was on another level at times that season; and we some real professionals in there, such as Calde [Inigo Calderon], GG [Gordon Greer] and Kish [Radostin Kishishev].

“Marcos Painter was a model of consistency at left-back; in fact, I could go through every position and everyone played their part in the success. It meant so much to be going into the new stadium as a Championship club and we knew that with the momentum we had, on and off the pitch, the club was only heading in one direction – and so it proved.”