I can play on for years, says hero Murray

Brighton striker Glenn Murray claimed after scoring twice to rescue a point for his side at home to Fulham that the key to his enduring fitness at 34 is that “I don’t run around in training”.

That got the laugh he intended, but part of the secret of his continuing success does, indeed, include knowing when not to run.

Murray intends to play until he is 37, like Brighton captain Bruno. Although fulfilling his aim will depend partly on an improved diet, ice baths, yoga and all the other facets of the modern footballer’s lifestyle, continuing to score goals will determine his longevity.

Here the key has been the refining of his game that has allowed him to score 15 league goals in 39 games since his and Brighton’s return to the top flight last summer.

“You learn what you’re good at and you stick to it,” Murray said. “I understand now that I’m not going to dribble at players and take two or three men on. I try to hold the ball up, get it to the wing and get in the box. The team look for me and, luckily, the goals are still coming.

“I feel the team appreciate me for what I am and play to my strengths.”

Murray modestly omitted to mention another factor – the intelligence that any striker not gifted with raw pace has to show.

He used it to avoid an offside flag in the move that led to a 24th-minute penalty for Brighton when Luciano Vietto tripped him, taken by Pascal Gross and saved by Marcus Bettinelli. And again, with Brighton 2-0 down, to move into space to receive Anthony Knockaert’s pass and pull a goal back.

His ability to draw fouls is another plus, deployed to win the free-kick that led to a second penalty for a needless handball by Aleksandar Mitrovic. Murray took this one and buried it, to complete a comeback that must have made all the ice baths feel worth it.

“I look at Bruno first hand every day he trains, he’s three years older than me, and I think ‘Why not?’.”

While Murray was looking forward, Mitrovic was looking back, protesting, in vain, that he had not handled to concede the equaliser.

That was the disappointment of losing a two-goal lead given to Fulham by Andre Schurrle and Mitrovic himself, but head coach Slavisa Jokanovic pointed out that his fellow Serb had made a “bad-luck mistake”, but also continued his early-season form, which has brought four goals in four games.