RICHIE TOWELL CAME off the bench to make his first league appearance for Brighton and Hove Albion.
But the former Dundalk ace couldn’t stop the Seagulls from falling to a 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.
Chris Hughton’s side agonisingly missed out on automatic promotion on goal difference, and finished a whopping 15 points ahead of sixth-placed Wednesday.
But their Premier League dream now hangs by a thread after goals in either half from Ross Wallace and Kieran Lee left the Owls in the driving seat.
No side has ever overturned a two-goal deficit in the second leg of a Championship play-off semi — the task which now faces Brighton in Monday’s return at The Amex.
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