Rancour, road trips and revival: tale of battle for Brighton’s future hits the stage

New play spotlights fans’ tortuous trek from the Goldstone Ground, via Gillingham and an athletics stadium

It was the tip-off that changed Ian Hart’s life for ever. The funeral director from Worthing was co-editor of the Brighton fanzine Gull’s Eye when he received a phone call from Gordon Lucking, a Crystal Palace director, in July 1995.

“Gordon always wanted to join the Brighton board, but they didn’t want him there,” Hart says. “Ron Noades [the Palace chair] welcomed him with open arms. One of his [Lucking’s] employees had been on this golf day and someone got pissed in the evening and said: ‘You’ll never guess what’s happened – Brighton have sold the Goldstone Ground and are moving to Portsmouth.’ Gordon loved it, because it was another nail in Brighton’s coffin.”