Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper David Button was full of praise for the young Seagulls defence that took to the field for the 1-0 defeat to Southampton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening at the Amex Stadium.
The summer arrival made his home debut against Mark Hughes’ men - with Will Collar, Ben Barclay, Bernardo and Markus Suttner ahead of him – and the keeper spoke highly of the back four after the contest.
He said, “It was a young defence in front of me and I thought they did really well and they were excellent.
“I’m sure they’ll go on and keep improving so that’s one of the main positives from this evening.
“There’s real quality throughout all the age groups and I expected that when I came to the club.”
Charlie Austin’s header two minutes from time was the difference between the two sides on the south coast on Tuesday night, but Button insisted he enjoyed his first Amex outing despite the scoreline.
“I enjoyed playing - the result and the manner of it was disappointing but I certainly enjoyed my debut.
“I had a good few saves to make, and I felt like I did those well, I was quite pleased with that – they’re the positives.
“The team defended well, and I didn’t have too much to do – the goal was a good header but on another day I felt like I might have stopped it, but we have to move on from this result and focus on the league now.”
With one goalkeeping counterpart likely to feature for Australia in the Asia Cup in January, the former Fulham man also emphasised the importance of competition between the sticks between the goalkeeping group at the club.
“We know Maty [Ryan] will be away in January so it’s an incentive for both me and Jason [Steele] to perform.
“I came here with my eyes open to the situation, I knew how well Maty had done last season but when I do get those opportunities I’ll be looking forward to getting involved and doing my best.”