With Brighton surprisingly lying in 6th place in the league and currently on an encouraging run of form, boss Dean Wilkins has challenged his players to prove the pundits wrong and aim for the automatic promotion places.
Many have been surprised about our start to the season, with us being touted as one of the favourites to be relegated to League Two at the start of the season. It’s hardly surprising given our mediocre season last year which saw us nearly relegated for the second year running having just come down from the Championship.
But Wilkins believes that Albion have the capabilities to be aiming higher than the fourth and final play-off position we currently occupy and is impressed with the strength of character shown by his side. Speaking to The Argus, Wilkins said:
‘Our target is still to try and win the League. In terms of manpower and financially we are not in the same league as Leeds and Nottingham Forest.
‘I would include Swansea as well. Financially those clubs have got a far better chance of getting into the Championship than we have but I see that as an even greater challenge, to do it against the odds.
‘We are what we are and we are trying to work week by week to see how far we can get. The important thing is seeing a gradual improvement all the time and I think we can see a squad now developing and maturing.’
The teams strength will now be tested in some big games coming up, including the trip to Leyton Orient this Saturday and the visit to Colin Calderwood’s Nottingham Forest side in the near future as well as a home game against league leaders Carlisle and a cup replay against Cheltenham next Tuesday.
With the performances shown though you would expect us to match all these sides and although the results may not be positive all the time, it’s how we react to set-backs which will determine where we finish. Right now, it’s hard to predict where we will end up at tall but there’s a good chance it will be in a similar place to where we are now.
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