By Tim Hodges from the pre-match Press Conference at Lancing.
Chris Hughton has told Brighton & Hove News, that he anticipates summer signing Florin Andone will get match time for Albion soon.
The Albion boss said ” Florin missed good chunks of the pre-season. He came to us with an injury, which we were aware of, but he had a couple of setbacks as well – Jurgen Locadia has been further forward than Florin( so has been preferred from the bench)but at this moment Florin has got through a good period of training and I am sure we’ll see a fair amount of him in the weeks and months to come.”
Hughton went on to say that he has had good conversations with Andone and expects players not in the team to be somewhat unhappy. However with Glenn Murray scoring goals regularly he is pleased that the Romanian continues to work hard – “I have had good conversations with him and I want players who are not in the team to be unhappy, because they are not in the team”
Hughton also told @bhcitynews about the general dressing room spirit saying ” again I would expect those squad members who are not in the team not to be happy about that, but, in regard to the mood and what they are giving to the group it has been excellent- one of the markers you tend to look for in a group or team are the training days the day after a game for the ones that haven’t been playing and they have been excellent as well, the players are a good clever bunch who are aware what they are achieving at the moment (comparatively Albion’s highest ever placing in English football) but they are also aware they are not playing as well as they could and the difference in the level of our performance in the last three games, which we’ve won 1-0 could have gone either way, but they are very conscious of the hard work they have to put in to get results – but are aware of where we are at the moment and are delighted with it.”
Albion will be without Pascal Gross and Davy Propper again at Everton on Saturday (3 November) although both are expected to be available after the international break.
Albion haven’t beaten Everton since February 1982 under Mike Bailey. His team were similar in many ways to Chris Hughton’s modern day Albion. Bailey secured the Seagulls highest ever finish in English football , thirteenth in the old division one. With less teams the Albion of 2018/19 could very well rewrite the history books.
