Darren Freeman on his memorable hat-trick 25 years on

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Striker's treble came on August 7 1999 when we played our first game at the Withdean Stadium.

2024-08-07T06:00+01:00

Darren Freeman is congratulated by Gary Hart on his way to a hat-trick as Albion returned to Brighton in style.

Albion played their first game at Withdean Stadium on 7 August 1999, beating Mansfield Town 6-0 in a Division Three encounter. The headline maker that day was Darren Freeman, who netted a hat-trick on his debut, having joined his home town club from Brentford that summer…

Darren, how nice was it to score a hat-trick in the first game at Withdean?

Everything just came together. Even the weather was unbelievable. There was a buzz about the place and [manager] Micky Adams brought that – his man-management skills were fantastic. What we achieved in that game, especially with it being the club’s first back in Brighton, was like a dream. To score three goals on my debut, for my home town club, and in the first game back in Brighton was very special… but it was almost too good. I set myself up a bit – some people were expecting me to get hat-tricks every week and expectations went through the roof.

Darren Freeman scores in the 6-0 win over Mansfield on his way to an opening-day hat-trick.

As a Brightonian, what was it like to have joined the club that summer?

Micky had got a lot of players together that he knew and trusted. Quite a few of us had been with him at Fulham – myself, Danny Cullip, Paul Watson – and we knew him as a manager and that he would get the best out of us individually and collectively. It was great to be back playing for him and with my friends, but, more importantly, in my home town. That was a dream come true for me. Mind you, I remember when I took the call from Micky saying he wanted me to come to Brighton, he said, “It takes a lot of bottle playing for your home-town club because if things don’t work out or you have a bad game it can be a nightmare. There’s no hiding place.”

So that didn’t bother you?

I knew what I wanted. I wanted to represent my home-town club. I didn’t have to think twice about it. As you get older and more humble you appreciate these kind of things more. I’m just glad I managed to pull that shirt on. It’s something I’m really proud of.

Albion fans lapped it up as their side celebrated its return to Brighton with a 6-0 win over Mansfield.

What are your overall thoughts of that season? Ultimately we fell just short of the play-offs…

I wouldn’t say that we underachieved that year. I just think we were a little bit unlucky. People don’t realise how hard it is to win leagues. You have to be bang on it week in, week out. Everyone wants to win the league and no one is entitled to win it automatically. You need a little bit of luck along the way with injuries, results etc and I just think some results didn’t go our way. You remember odd goals we conceded here and there against the run of play, the way some of our efforts went just wide or hit the post, but then we clicked… wow! That unbeaten run at the end [Albion finished the campaign undefeated in 14 matches] was definitely the springboard for the year afterwards when all the hard work paid off and we won the league.

You also famously scored the first Football League goal of the new millennium, netting in the early kick-off on New Year’s Day against Exeter. You had a premonition, didn’t you?

Dareen Freeman with the match ball after his hat-trick against Mansfield.

I just had this feeling that I was going to score. We stayed in a hotel the night before the match and I roomed with Kerry Mayo. I took out a pen and wrote ‘Happy New Year’ on the T-shirt I was going to wear under my Albion shirt during the game. And it happened [Darren scoring 100 seconds after kick-off, officially recognised as the first league goal of the new millennium on British soil]. It was a nice goal as well, certainly one of my better ones. As we kicked off early, whoever scored was going to get the first goal of the new century, and it’s one of those things that people always remind me of.

You retired from professional football in August 2001, aged 28, due to an ongoing hernia problem, so how do you view your career?

I didn’t have the longest of careers because I was plagued with bad injuries, but I managed to cram a lot into it. There was all the stuff that season, winning the league the following year, and winning leagues with Fulham, Gillingham and Brentford. Every single club I played for I won the league. Some people go their entire career without winning anything, so I was very fortunate.