ALBION READY FOR BIG LEAP FORWARD

THERE has only been a hint of it, but Brighton are not going to rest on the laurels of survival. Dan Ashworth, former FA technical director and now in the same role at the Amex, wrote in Saturday’s programme about how Brighton could ‘maybe end up in Europe’. That still seems way off. This was their first league win in 2019 and the job for the rest of the season is to stay in the Premier League. Even so, Chris Hughton is taking steps to rejuvenate his team ahead of the next big step. Summer arrival Florin Andone scored the goal, record signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh had a role to play in the move, while Yves Bissouma shone. Bernardo got the nod at left back ahead of Gaetan Bong. Another summer signing, Martin Montoya,

played on the right. Nobody has been rushed and the likes of Glenn Murray and Anthony Knockaert have remained as important as they were in the Championship. Hughton said: ‘Bernardo was in good form before he got injured. I knew we could be strong in the wide areas because of the way Huddersfield play, so he got the nod. Alireza is a player we value. We bought him for big money and I thought it was another good opportunity.’ Long-termism is the name of the