Vaughan Handed New Contract

Brighton and Hove Albion are delighted to announce that club manager Donald Vaughan has penned a new one year contract extension at The Amex which will keep the 27-year-old at the club until 2015.

The Hackney-born manager took over here from Óscar García at the start of this season, and before the extension, he had only six months left to run on his existing contract. Tony Bloom and Stefan Strandberg have expressed their delight that the boss has shown his loyalty to the club, even in tough times, and his side currently sit in 3rd place in the Sky Bet Championship.

"We are thrilled to announce that Donald has extended his stay at The Amex until June 2015. Over the past season, he has picked this club back up following the heartbreak that last season brought us, and has the team playing well at the moment. The respect that the players and staff have for him is fantastic. He deserves this reward for what he has done for the club in a short period of time, and we look forward to many more years working with Donald."

I would have been surprised if they didnt offer you another contract, your doing some amazing work at the amex

*double thumbs up*

Brighton and Hove Albion have announced the departures of Craig Mackail-Smith and Andrea Orlandi. Orlandi, 29, and Mackail-Smith, also 29, left The Amex yesterday as Donald Vaughan looks to reshape the Brighton squad as they continue their hunt for promotion.

Orlandi drops down a division, as he heads to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Orlandi was frozen out of the side following Kazenga LuaLua, and Will Buckley's performances to date, and Vaughan clearly felt that the Spaniard was deadwood. But a return to the Sky Bet Championship next season could be on the cards for the former Swansea City winger. Orlandi had a loan spell with Barcelona back in 2006, but only succeeded in making one appearance for the Spanish giants. He heads off for Wolves for a fee of £600,000.

Mackail-Smith, on the other hand, heads to Scotland, where he will join up with Dundee United. The striker had not played a game for Brighton under Donald Vaughan, due to an injury which the former Peterborough man has only just recovered from. With it now seeming like he had been replaced by Anthony Stokes, Vaughan put the 30-year-old up for sale, and bids came flying in for the capped Scottish international. Coincidentally, Mackail-Smith was born in England, and has never played for a Scottish side. He is eligible to play for Scotland through his grandmother. He leaves The American Express Stadium for a fee of £450,000.

Amazing story,can't wait for the next update

They were good servants, especially Mackail-Smith.

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Top 12 as of 1/2/14

You've hit some good form (excluding games against Burnley) and the layout is brilliant mate.

Very good form! Very nice graphics! Burnley are a tough team to beat so don't worry about losing to them.

Brighton and Hove Albion winger David López has told the BBC website that the team still strongly believes that the chance of promotion to the Barclays Premier League is still very much on the cards. Statistically, López has been Brighton's best player so far this season, and has recently been rewarded with a new improved contract by the management at the club. The Seagulls currently sit in 4th place in the Sky Bet Championship, which would mean that the side would qualify for a playoff spot.

López tells us that he, and the rest of the Brighton squad remain confident of maintaining the spot, at the very least. There is a feeling among the squad that an automatic promotion spot could still be reachable, however unlikely it may seem, according to the 31-year-old from Spain.

"Myself and the rest of the lads have great confidence of winning promotion. What part I will play in the side next season if we do get promoted is irrelevant. I'm here to help the side get promoted, and if I do, I'm sure I'll be remembered as one of the players who helped the club to the Premier League. It fills me with great pride to be associated with the club. We've come too close in the past for it to happen to us again. It's all or nothing for a lot of the older members of the squad this season, so we all want to make it happen. Now it's all down to us.

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Top 12 as of 1/1/3

WOW! Amazing update mate! Love the graphics! Keep battling for the top 6, I have faith you'll do it. It's looking damn tense up there though!

You're doing well man! Keep pushing for automatic!

Six additional minutes at the end of the first half of a match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Queens' Park Rangers contributed to a 0-3 win for Harry Redknapp's side at The Amex, according to Brighton manager Donald Vaughan.

The 27-year-old launched a verbal attack on the referee following his team's 0-3 loss, clearly angry at some of Jon Moss' decisions during the match. He started by criticizing a goal that was disallowed for his team in the first half due to an offside flag, with the Hackney-born Brighton manager showing his disgust at Moss' decision to rule out the goal.

Vaughan then went on to talk about an injury to one of his players earlier on in the game, once again unhappy with the way the referee dealt with the situation.

"It was a horrible challenge on David López from the Q.P.R player. He'd no intention of getting the ball, but in he went on David, who had been a big threat to their team prior to his injury. Yet the referee didn't book the player, or even call a foul."

Everyone has heard of 'Fergie Time', but there was a new trend on Twitter following the game - #RedknappTime. This was due to the excessive amount of injury time that the teams were made to play. The referee had signaled just three were to be added on, but the teams ended up playing another six. It was in these additional moments that Q.P.R scored the first goal, and Vaughan believes that conceding this goal threw all of the work that his side had done back in their face.

"We'd worked so hard up until that point. But the lads were all exhausted. We got to three minutes, and stopped working so hard, thinking the whistle was going to go any minute. But Jon Moss decided to extend the time that was to be played, for a reason unbeknown to me, and a huge section of other people that I've seen commenting on the game. I'm prepared to take any F.A. sanction that might come my way after this, but it was this decision among many that contributed to our heavy loss."

#RedknappTime UNDESERVED WIN.