by Tom Hughes

Dear Mr. Poyet,

Firstly, I’d just like to express my sincere thanks for encouraging the hullabaloo surrounding Brighton and Hove Albion since last Monday’s amazing play-off semi-final second leg.

I’m not sure if I believe your email leaked to The Sun to be the genuine reason for your suspension alongside your assistants, but whatever the real cause it has helped detract attention from the build-up to the play-off final and in turn made me slightly less nervous about that huge Bank Holiday showdown at Wembley.

Not to mention the fact that it has given us Palace fans untold additional joy besides the euphoria at wiping the smiles off your happy-clapping plastic fans’ faces in our fantastic 2-0 win.

You seemed to think not having a tactical plan wouldn’t matter because of your home advantage. Wilfried Zaha and co playing out of their skin proved otherwise.

To be slightly more balanced and fair, I have a lot of respect for the quality of your Tesco-shirted team. In the first half of the first leg you played incredibly well and made the Eagles more dramatically underdogs than was ever sensible.

We thrive when nobody expects anything from us.

Then there’s the truth that a lot of moments in the two legs boiled down to luck and fortune. There were so many close shaves for both sides, shots off the woodwork, goal line clearances and standard Julian Speroni miracles.

But while you went for a complacent second leg approach, Ian Holloway set us up to withstand the pressure and punish you at the other end, which our Manchester United loanee did to stunning effect.

I’m sure you’re too busy manoeuvring yourself into a new managerial position to read this, but I just want you to know how grateful I am to have experienced Monday night.

Just when Palace needed a run of form and consecutive clean sheets the most, our bitterest rivals helped us out.

So thanks for everything over the past couple of years, I’ve loved nearly all of it. If we are to play Brighton again next year I’m sure your replacement won’t be so relaxed, let alone so ready to blame excrement for firing the opposition up.

All the best,

Tom Hughes