Our 2024/25 Premier League campaign ended on a disappointing note as we suffered a 4-1 home reverse to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon.
After one of the greatest weeks in the Club’s history as we celebrated Europa League success, a difficult league season concluded with another defeat as the visitors hit four unanswered goals in the second half after we’d led at half-time through a Dominic Solanke penalty.
The hectic week and long season probably took its toll in the second period as Jack Hinshelwood netted twice, Matt O’Riley converted a penalty and Diego Gomez scored a fine goal in the final minutes to give the Seagulls all three points and ensuring we finished the campaign in 17th place in the table.
The afternoon was always going to be one of celebration though following Wednesday glory, glory night in Bilbao and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a sea of blue and white flags as the game got underway. The visitors had the first shot across the bows although it was wayward from Simon Adingra with three minutes gone and we grew into the game, taking the lead from the penalty spot in the 17th minute. We won the ball back in midfield and shifted out quickly to Mathys Tel who advanced into the box and was brought down by Mats Wieffer as he cut inside. Up stepped Solanke, once again cool as you like, to slam the spot-kick into the roof of the net.
Guglielmo Vicario was called into his first serious action when he had to punch clear Hinshelwood’s flick on from a Yasin Ayari corner on the half hour, while we should have doubled our lead eight minutes later. It was a swift counter-attack, Pedro Porro leading the charge and slipping a pass through to release Tel, however his right-footed effort was well saved by Bart Verbruggen in the Brighton goal.
We were pegged back six minutes into the second half following a scrappy equaliser. Brajan Gruda delivered the corner, Adam Webster’s header hit Solanke and landed at the feet of Hinshelwood who drilled past Vicario from inside the six yard box. Vicario then had to stop Gomez’s drive as Brighton enjoyed a good spell, however we almost regained the lead after brilliant work down the left flank from Tel, bursting clear and cutting the ball back for our hero in Bilbao, Brennan Johnson, who side-footed wide when he should have hit the target.
Back at the other end, Kevin Danso produced a wonderful block to deny Yankuba Minteh, who was then thwarted by a great save from Vicario before Carlos Baleba’s 22-yard volley took a slight deflection on its way to hitting the post. The pressure was building from the visitors and that told on 64 minutes when another corner ricocheted off Danso to Hinshelwood, who produced a clever backheel from close range to make it 2-1.
We made a number of changes to freshen things up for the final stages as a crazy week started to take its toll but a challenge from Yves Bissouma on Gomez led to a penalty for the Seagulls which substitute O’Riley converted. The visitors added a fourth in stoppage time, Gomez with an excellent 25-yard ping into the top corner, disappointing of course, but that was the signal for a chorus of ‘When the Spurs Go Marching In’ as our fans began the post-match Europa League winners’ celebrations early.