The changes Brighton are making off the pitch to make the Amex their 'castle'

Match-going Brighton & Hove Albion fans may have noticed the club have tweaked the pre-match music routine at the Amex Stadium in recent weeks.

In an attempt to improve the atmosphere, club anthem, Sussex by the Sea, now blasts out through the loudspeaker system immediately before kick-off, instead of a couple of minutes earlier as the players first take to the pitch.

The change to the running order, first introduced for the home game against Ipswich in September, has been driven by the players. They felt that hearing the 117-year-old song — adopted by fans since Brighton won the Charity Shield in 1910 — before the Premier League anthem that coincides with the teams lining up to shake hands meant the atmosphere gradually faded approaching kick-off, rather than reaching a crescendo.

Decibel checks made by the Premier League for the kick-off of all matches have demonstrated that the noise inside the stadium has increased since the shift.

It is not the first time that playing the club anthem has been delayed by a few minutes. It happened last season at home matches in the Europa League to comply with UEFA protocols. There were no protests from supporters at that time, but the club has received approximately 20 complaints via email since the change was applied to domestic fixtures as well.

Head coach Fabian Hurzeler is keen to turn the Amex into a more intimidating venue. Writing in the matchday programme for the 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest in September, the 31-year-old German said: “I have said that the Amex should be a castle where nobody wants to enter.

“It should be an experience for our visiting team that they have never encountered here before, where it’s ruthless, where the atmosphere is really against them. I think it’s most important to make the Amex our castle, our fortress.”

The Millerntor Stadium was a formidable test for opponents of Hurzeler’s former club St Pauli, as he guided them to the Bundesliga 2 title last season. The Hamburg-based side had the best home record in Germany’s second tier in 2023-24, taking 38 of a possible 51 points in their 17 home matches (11 wins, five draws, one defeat).

Brighton are unbeaten so far at home during Hurzeler’s reign, although the small sample size includes underwhelming stalemates against Ipswich and Forest in the league and a routine win against third-tier opponents Crawley in the Carabao Cup.

The capacities of the Amex Stadium (32,000) and the Millerntor Stadium (29,500) are similar, but the atmosphere at Brighton’s 13-year-old home is not often described by visiting fans as intimidating.

The Amex ranked third highest in the league on the room given to away supporters, the allocation of over 3,000 seats behind the south stand goal accounting for more than 10 per cent of the stadium’s overall capacity.

Brighton are investigating options for moving the away section from next season on the basis that the current set-up gives the sense that 25 per cent of the stadium is occupied by away fans and that having one end filled by visitors gives opponents more of an advantage than necessary.

The narrative that a trip to Brighton for away fans represents a friendly day out by the seaside — with a good chance of the enjoyment factor being increased by a positive result — is amplified by how the club have fared at home throughout their Premier League era.

Hurzeler says the Amex ‘should be a castle where nobody wants to enter’ (Henry Browne/Getty Images)

As is often the case with promoted teams, home form was the bedrock of safety in the first season back in the top flight under Chris Hughton in 2017-18. Gaining 29 out of 40 points at the Amex to finish 15th put them eighth in the table based on home results alone.

For the next four seasons under Hughton (2018-19) and successor Graham Potter (2019-22), they fell to either 16th or 17th in the home form table. In the first three of those seasons, the actual finishing position ranged from 15th to 17th. The upturn to ninth in Potter’s final full season in charge in 2021-22 was due to an improvement in away form (29 points out of a total of 51).

In the past two seasons under former head coach Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton’s home form improved. They twice finished ninth in the home form table, with tallies of 34 home points when finishing a highest-ever sixth in the table in 2022-23, and 30 last season.

Multiple factors warrant consideration in assessing these numbers — such as differences in squad strength, the impact of no crowds and reduced attendances across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, plus the growth of the club in the Premier League. But strong home form is imperative to success.

This will not be easy for Hurzeler to achieve. The undefeated home start to his reign faces a severe test in a sequence of four of the next six matches at the Amex, which includes visits from Tottenham on Sunday and the current top two in the Premier League table, Liverpool and Manchester City.

Even so, in an environment where marginal gains count for a lot, making the Amex a more difficult place for visiting teams than it generally has been for the past seven years will benefit Brighton in their aspirations to become an established top-10 club, competing again for European qualification and for the first major silverware in their history.

(Top photo: Steve Bardens/Getty Images)