Brighton centre half Shane Duffy has said the side need to show significant improvement as we go into the game against Manchester United in the FA Cup following defeat to Everton in our last game.
Having lost the Premier League encounter two nil, Brighton ow go into the FA Cup sixth round tie with Manchester United this weekend and that’s certainly not going to be an easy game in itself.
Speaking to the Official Site to reflect on the loss, Duffy knew the players had to hold their hands up to the defeat as they simply weren’t good enough on the day.
‘Probably one of the most disappointing things for us was the fact we didn’t really threaten until the final few minutes of the game. We know we`re better than that – and we have to have the right mentality now until the end of the season. We`re still in a good position in the league and we`ve done well. Seasons are over 38 games, not just one, and you`re going to lose games over the course of the campaign.’
Duffy added.
‘We didn’t turn up and we got punished in the end, so we`re disappointed. When a team like Everton are on their game, they can punish you – and that`s what happened. The way we conceded the first goal is disappointing, because we`d been under a bit of pressure in the opening 60 minutes and felt like we`d weathered the storm. But you could probably argue we weren’t at it from the start of the game and it wasn’t good enough, it`s just a blip – we`ve been here before and now what we have to do is put it behind us and react.’
Looking ahead to United this weekend, the Republic of Ireland international went on to say that to have any chance of a positive result we had to get back to our own best but obviously the pressure is off given the opponent and that should help.
‘It`s a good opportunity to make amends for the last result, there`s no pressure on the lads and it`s a great chance to get to Wembley. It`s a different competition which means we can change our focus as well. What we can`t do is let the last result in the league affect our thinking too much.’
Having last met in November, Duffy said our performance in the match would give the players a boost.
‘We played well there in November when nobody expected much from us, and we probably caught them off guard with how we did. We were better than they expected us to be and it`s a big game to look forward to. It`s about going there with the aim of making the last four, if we can do that then it would be great for the club.’
He added.
‘We know what we`re up against – they`re a very good side. Not many teams go to Old Trafford and beat Manchester United, so there`s no pressure on us. We`ll just go there and give it our all, as we always do, and hopefully that`s enough to see us get a good result.’
