There is often talk of clubs with a rich pedigree, but it was a player with an extended footballing heritage that made all the difference in a closely fought encounter here on Wednesday.
First, Jack Hinshelwood cleared off the line when Brentford seemed sure to take the lead for a second time, and, scarcely two minutes later, it was Hinshelwood again whose assured header from close range gave Brighton a lead that they rarely looked likely to surrender.
Hinshelwood, 18, is from the fourth generation of footballing Hinshelwoods, a family tree that includes Wally, his great-grandfather, and his father, Adam, who was four seasons into a nine-year spell at the Seagulls when Jack was born, 12 miles down the coast in Worthing.
Having joined the Brighton academy as a seven-year-old, Hinshelwood was making his home debut after performing strongly in three recent appearances away from home. His graduation to the first team, including a full game in the Europa League in Athens last week, has been a silver lining for his manager, Roberto de Zerbi, as injuries have piled up, and De Zerbi could hardly have given him more of a build-up than to describe him this week as “like a son of Pascal Gross”.
Hinshelwood was a shoo-in for player of the match and so, too, for a standing ovation as he was withdrawn with 17 minutes left.
“It is an unbelievable feeling,” Hinshelwood said. “It was my first game playing here at the Amex in front of all these fans. And it was a brilliant feeling to get a standing ovation. I’m just delighted to get the win. The fans, players and manager have all shown great belief in me and I am just trying to repay them.”
Hinshelwood changed the narrative of a match which had been, to that point, a near facsimile of the meeting in April, which played out as a breathless 3-3 draw. As they had last season, when they led three times, it was Brentford who opened the scoring after their opponents had looked to carry the greater threat.
Bryan Mbeumo sent Jason Steele the wrong way from the spot after Jan Paul van Hecke tugged down Vitaly Janelt as he advanced on goal, but within minutes the Bees had again surrendered a lead.
Hinshelwood and then João Pedro moved the ball swiftly from the right to Kaoru Mitoma on the left, and when he rolled it inside to Gross it was thumped across Mark Flekken and into the far corner.
For the remainder of the half both teams probed in familiar style, looking to get forward at speed whenever possible, but the opening of the second half suggested that the home side had been reminded in the interval of the well-known mutual antipathy between their chairman, Tony Bloom, and his Brentford counterpart and former employee, Matthew Benham.
Bloom has been known to take a seat with the away fans at the reverse fixture, and if he was somewhere amid the blue-and-white in the North Stand here he must have been delighted by the waves of Brighton pressure that started to bear down on the visitors’ goal.
Gross found Mitoma with a clever ball soon after the restart but his cross could not quite reach João Pedro, as one attack followed another, but it was Brentford that came closest to regaining the advantage on 49 minutes.
Gross, at left-back, was robbed by Frank Onyeka before Hinshelwood blocked Yoane Wissa’s shot on the line. Within two minutes, Brighton were ahead and the first of what could well be many moments to remember was being pasted into the Hinshelwood family scrapbook.
