No doubt someone, somewhere uttered the immortal words after Dean Cox scored last night , "They always score against their old clubs, don't they" - or something of that ilk.
Any glibly-spouted, conventional wisdom, in my opinion, needs putting to the test, so I did some research. All in all, there were 20 appearances, if I have counted correctly, by ex-Albion players against the Seagulls last season - some of these are the same player twice. Between them, they mustered two goals. One of these was a goalkeeper, in Simon Royce, so we can probably discount that to a degree.
The 'successful' duo were Matt Richards [Walsall] and Dean Hammond [Southampton], both of whom played in both league matches against the Albion for their current employers. It might not be that surprising in either case, as Richards liked hitting free-kicks, and Hammond getting on the end of them.
They both needed the second match to net and neither ended up on the winning side.
So, on this unscientific basis, former players score against their old club 10 percent of the time.
Alex Revell didn't score last night, despite his decent start to the season. However, the human mind being what it is, we love to notice patterns, coincidences, or trends, to try and put order into the chaos and the random. It's all terribly comforting for some reason that I'll leave the psychology graduate somewhere in Block B to try and explain in more detail.
If you are wondering just who the ex-players were, then here's the list, in order of appearance - Matt Richards [Walsall], Ian Westlake [Wycombe], Joe Anyinsah [Carlisle], Mark Wright [Bristol Rovers], Nathan Jones, George O'Callaghan, Sam Williams [Yeovil], Simon Royce [Gillingham], Dan Harding, Dean Hammond [Southampton], Stuart Fleetwood [Exeter], Steve Sidwell [Aston Villa], Bradley Johnson [Leeds], Therry Racon [Charlton] and Bas Savage [Tranmere].
