Always look on Bright side of strife

NO MORE PRESSURE DESPITE SLUMP SAYS BOSS HUGHTON

CHRIS HUGHTON insists he feels no more pressure ahead of Brighton’s must-win clash with Huddersfield than he did on the opening day of the season.

Hughton is battling to arrest Albion’s alarming slump that has sent them tumbling down the table. The Seagulls are the only side in all four divisions to have failed to register a single league win in 2019.

And with only two points separating them from the bottom three, anything less than victory from today’s visit of rockbottom Huddersfield will ramp up fears of the drop.

The Brighton boss, though, is adamant he is not feeling any extra strain. Hughton said: “Pressure? Pressure is the first game of the season when you’ve got to go up to Liverpool or Manchester City.

“Pressure is consistent right through the season and at this moment I don’t feel any more pressure than I have felt at any time this term. But I think there is a realism. It’s a club here and a support here that accepts this is our second season. And it’s not as though we went through last season very comfortably and finished mid-table.”

Fulham’s decision to dump Claudio Ranieri this week means the bottom four clubs have accumulated 15 managers between them during Hughton’s fouryear spell at Brighton.

And the Albion boss

(right) believes that sense of stability boosts the club’s survival hopes.

He said: “I think there is a realisation here that there are going to be tough periods during the season. So, yes, I do think the stability we have here helps.

“And what also helps is I have a changing room that at the moment is concerned and also disappointed we have not got the results. But it’s not a changing room that is full of doom and gloom.

“We are one year more experienced than last season.

“We managed to do it last season and we are one season further on and will now lean on every advantage we can.”

A point today will guarantee Brighton stay out of the relegation zone. And Hughton said: “Psychologically it gives you a big boost not to be in that bottom three.

“There are still plenty of games to go and there will be lots of twists and turns in that bottom group.”