Brighton and Hove Albion v Rochdale, 19 August 2000

Following their opening day defeat at Southend, Brighton bounced back from an early setback to claim the maximum reward. Dale's veteran midfielder Tony Ford gave the visitors the lead when he headed home Simon Davies' left-wing cross from 12 yards. Albion's leveller came in similar fashion but from the other end of the age scale. 19 year-old Bobby Zamora - a £100,000 summer capture from Bristol Rovers - got on the end of Paul Watson's cross to guide home a precise header. Both sides were then reduced to ten men following a seemingly innocuous challenge. Andy Crosby and Tony Ellis were given their marching orders by rookie ref, Phil Prosser. In only his second league game, Mr Prosser also went on to show seven yellow cards. Thankfully for the Seagulls, the headlines were made by Zamora the scorer of both their goals. He netted the eventual winner with the last kick of the first half. Released by Gary Hart, the prolific youngster curled a lovely left foot shot beyond Neil Edwards' reach. Including a loan spell towards the end of last season, the former Norwich reject had now scored eight goals in eight games for Brighton.