Robbie Reinelt reflects on his historic goal that kept Albion in the Football League at the end of the 1996/97 season. Tuesday marked 25 years since his equaliser at Hereford, that goes down as arguably the most important goal in Albion's history.
We trained as usual in the week leading up to the match with Hereford, and stayed in a hotel away from the town. All week Steve Gritt encouraged us to just go out and play our natural game, saying that everything would turn out fine. The team spirit was terrific and if anyone had seen us in the evening, they would never have guessed we were a bunch of lads who would be playing for our Football League lives on Saturday afternoon. Dave Martin was the instigator of much of the fun, and although he only played the one game for Brighton, he was a brilliant bloke around the dressing room.
I was once again disappointed to be on the bench, but couldn’t really argue with Steve Gritt’s decision to start with the same 11 who began the game with Doncaster. With both sides knowing what was at stake, there was more tension even than at the Goldstone the previous Saturday.
To be honest, I don’t remember too much about the early part of the game. It wasn’t the best of matches, but we were holding our own until Kerry Mayo deflected a shot past Mark Ormerod to give them the lead. That was a huge blow. Suddenly we were staring at the abyss.
At half-time Steve was calm as anything – certainly on the outside – and he told us to just continue playing the way we had and a goal would come. Thankfully he was proved absolutely right.
My chance came early on in the second half, when I replaced Paul McDonald, who was struggling a bit with an injury. We were starting to press Hereford back more and I’d been on the pitch less than ten minutes when Craig Maskell hit his beautiful shot from just outside the penalty area that crashed against the far post.
Often, the ball will bounce out harmlessly away from the goal or go behind for a corner or goal kick when it’s hit the frame of the goal, but you are always told as an attacking player to get into the box and be ready for the one occasion in maybe ten when it will come back out.
You have to be on your toes and ready to react and beat opposing defenders to the ball. Fortunately, on this occasion, it bounced straight out to me, and I knew what I had to do. I hit it as hard as I could with my left foot and it hit the back of the net. The fans behind that goal went ballistic!
The next thing I knew I was being mobbed by the team and I heard a voice in my ear say, “Robbie, you just saved my life, mate.” Of course, it was Kerry and I think at the time he meant it and we’ve since become great mates and see each other fairly regularly – he invited me to play in his testimonial legends game.
I understand what he meant. Can you imagine how he would have felt and how he might have been treated if his deflection had ended up being the goal that sent the club out of the league? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
We held out for the final 30 minutes of the game and at the final whistle, I remember pandemonium breaking out amongst the Brighton fans behind the goal. I had been so wrapped up in the match that I hadn’t noticed the riot police in full gear ready to come onto the pitch. There were 8,500 people crammed into Hereford’s tiny Edgar Street ground, and at that moment it seemed that almost all of them were Brighton. While the team went over to celebrate with the fans, the police formed a line on the centre circle to keep the two sets of supporters apart.
I really felt for the Hereford lads; they’d given their all and it hadn’t been good enough and they were absolutely devastated. We were mentally and physically drained, and when we got back to the dressing room I think it really began to hit us that we had pulled off the ‘Great Escape’. We celebrated with a few beers on the coach on the way back to Brighton, where we were greeted by a few jubilant fans – I think the rest were still celebrating somewhere in Hereford!
The following season was always going to be difficult, playing home games away from Brighton, and I was amazed at how many fans did make the trip to Gillingham to watch us. I was a regular in the side until Steve was sacked, unfairly in my opinion, given what he’d achieved for us, and the circumstances in which he had to work. Some managers you get on with and some you don’t and it was soon clear that I didn’t feature in Brian Horton’s plans, so it was no surprise when my contract wasn’t renewed.
I signed for Leyton Orient and it was quite early in the season when we played Brighton at Brisbane Road. Before the game, I said to the Orient lads, “You watch the reaction when my name is read out.” It was quite amusing to see the looks on their faces as the Brighton fans chanted my name. It is fantastic to know that I have a special place in Seagulls fans’ hearts.