Matt Sparrow has gone a long way since his double at home to Southampton.

To the other side of the globe, in fact, and a new life in Australia.

But the former Albion midfielder still remembers his best goal for the club, his close-range second and a win which sent Gus Poyet’s mid-table Championship side back on course.

Two days after losing at bottom team Coventry on New Year’s Eve - and with ten players out injured or suspended – Albion beat the leaders 3-0.

It was a repeat of the scoreline by which they had lost at St Mary’s few weeks earlier.

Jake Forster-Caskey scored on his first senior start to tip the balance against a Saints side who had seen striker Rickie Lambert sent-off.

Then Sparrow let fly from way outside the box and doubled the lead.

It was that one which has gone into Amex folklore, although he later added his second and the hosts’ third before Gordon Greer was sent-off for elbowing.

Sparrow is now based in Western Australia and recalls that winter’s afternoon in Falmer.

He said: “Those goals have stuck in my mind.

“One was an absolute belter, probably the best I got in Albion colours.

“We had a few out but we still had some decent players, looking at the line-up.

“The turning point was Rickie Lambert’s sending-off because we rode our luck in the first half, when they had that shot and it looked like it had gone over the line.

“It was nice to put one over my old manager Nigel Adkins.”

The shot ‘off the line’ saw Steve Cook deny Adam Lallana right in front of the North Stand.

Adkins, who had managed Sparrow at Scunthorpe, was unhappy a goal was not given, this being in the days before goal-line technology.

And he was not best pleased with the incident involving Adam El-Abd which saw Lambert dismissed.

Former Albion left-back Dan Harding, given a torrid time by home fans, had been taken off late in the first half having flirted with a second yellow.

Adkins said: “We scored a goal but the linesman hasn’t seen it. The ball has actually crossed the line. Goal-line technology shouts out.”

Poyet responded: ‘I didn’t see it.”

Sparrow felt he was up and running that day and recalled: “I was playing well that year but I got sent off at home to Leicester and that was really the downfall of my career at Brighton.

“I came back at Forest away but got two yellow cards and that was the end of me.

“They started bringing in new players and in the third season I got paid up.

“I had great times there. League One champions with 95 points and the second season was still decent but the third was a write-off, which was a disappointment.

“But, overall, I really enjoyed my time down there and I had family there. It was good while it lasted.”

Sparrow has kept in intermittent contact with fellow midfielder Gary Dicker and congratulated him on his recent new appointment in the USA.

He said: “I speak to Dicksy quite a few times.

“I didn’t see that move coming because he was doing well with the under-21s but it’s a big opportunity in America.

“I speak to Nooney (former winger Craig Noone) now and again because he was in Australia managing MacArthur.

“He was in Perth a couple of weeks ago so I got in touch then.”

Sparrow also kept in touch with Tommy Elphick, with whom he stayed in Woodingdean in his first season with the Seagulls.

His own move Down Under has proved to be an inspired decision and he is currently manager of Bayswater City in Perth.

He said: “I finished off my English career at Lincoln City in the Conference, 20 minutes away from my house. I just got to the stage where I didn’t want to be travelling up and down the country, Tuesday and Saturday, to be a squad player at 35.

“I had a couple of mates in Perth and they said why not come out and play there, live the life a bit.

“I had just split up with ex so I said, ‘Why not?’.

“I was on the flight a month later and have never looked back.

“I have been here about seven years now, playing semi-pro.

“And two years ago I became a manager here.

“I’m loving it really, learning every day and week by week.

“We train three times a week and play on Saturdays.

“I’m settled. I’ve joined a new club this year, a bit bigger and more ambitious, and I have more of a budget to sign new players.

“I live by the river and beach, new missus, two boys, aged one and five.”

It is not his first success when trying his luck from long-distance.

Albion: Brezovan; Cook, Greer, El-Abd, Taricco (Hall 54); Bridcutt, Forster-Caskey, Sparrow; LuaLua (Harley 85), Buckley, Mackail-Smith. Subs Not Used: Ankergren, Paynter, Vicente.

Southampton: Davis; Richardson, Martin, Hooiveld, Harding (Fox 40); Cork, Hammond, Lallana (Reeves 73); Do Prado (Forte 60), Connolly, Lambert. Subs Not Used: Bialkowski, Holmes.