Manager Chris Hughton has hailed the attitude and application of the Brighton side as we took victory over Coventry City at the weekend.
Having made some changes to the starting line up again to rest some and get others pitch time, we hosted them at the Amex Stadium and took a largely comfortable three one victory to put ourselves through to the quarter finals of the competition.
Jurgen Locadia opened his club account on his full time and was joined by Connor Goldson and Leo Ulloa on the scoresheet.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media at the full time whistle, Hughton was delighted with the professionalism on display from the side as despite our relative comfort, Coventry didn’t roll over and their performance and efforts would’ve won them fans.
‘The application was exactly what you need in this type of game. We had to work hard for it today and credit to Coventry for that. We wanted to start fast and take the sting out of their game, particularly if we could score early and build on that. It was always going to be about application – I can`t fault ours, we very much played on the front foot and wanted to get an early lead.’
Hughton went on to say.
‘The first goal deflated them a little bit – it was a super goal and one for Jurgen to get off the mark. Leo`s goal is what he can do – he`s a target man and wants to get into the box. He`s the type of striker that if you provide a service for him, he`ll have opportunities to score.’
With us gaining the advantage through Locadia in the 15th minute of the tie, he was obviously very impressed to see our record signing hit the ground running, and especially following his injury troubles he knew it would do him the world of good.
‘It`s always good to get that first goal as quickly as you can, but his overall contribution was more important. He hasn’t played for the best part of a couple of months now, and we didn`t want to take any chances in that last period. We`re still learning about him – because what you can do is watch a player as much as possible, but you don`t really know a player until you get him through the front door and work with him. He`s quite flexible in the areas and positions that he`s played. He`s used to playing up top and has played in a 4-3-3 – and as you saw at times, he drifted out onto the left-hand side.’
Taking the win does of course mean that Brighton are through to the quarter finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 1986, and Hughton’s message was simple – keep it going for as long as we can and take every ounce of confidence we can to boost our Premier League campaign.
‘It`s one competition that we wanted to make progress in. For as much as we can all say about the FA Cup and the Premier League, and how important that is, don`t take anything away from this competition. It`s enabled us to use the squad because we have a lot of competition at the moment. Thankfully, we haven’t had too many injuries and it`s enabled us to have a really tight squad. Most players have played games, and certainly when you`ve got that type of situation, it makes it a happy environment.’
