News

Potter: No time to feel sorry for ourselves

Graham Potter says Saturday's game with Everton at the Amex is the perfect opportunity to respond to last weekend’s defeat to Aston Villa.

By Alex Stedman • 24 October 2019

By Paul Hazlewood
Graham Potter speaks to the media ahead of the game with Everton this weekend.

Matt Targett’s injury-time winner inflicted a cruel defeat on the Seagulls at Villa Park five days ago, but the boss stressed the importance of having a chance to atone for that result when the Toffees visit the south coast this Saturday.

He said, “I haven’t had to pick the group up, but of course they are disappointed because the nature of the defeat meant it was a tough one to take.

“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves though - we’ve focused on things which we did well within the game this week, and also looked at areas we can improve too, but that’s the work we always do.

“You can’t bask in the glory all week if you’ve won a match, and in the same manner, you can’t get too down if a result hasn’t gone your way - you have to go again and that’s what our fans will expect of us in preparation for Everton this weekend.”

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Potter's Everton press conference

Marco Silva’s side head to the Amex this weekend on the back of a 2-0 victory over West Ham United at Goodison Park last time out, and Potter knows that the Merseyside team will provide another stern test for Albion.

“It will be a really tough game against a side with really good quality. They’ve had a tough time in terms of results recently and they’ll feel like they could have done better overall,” the head coach continued.

“But they had a very dominant performance last weekend against West Ham and deserved to win the game. Sometimes when you’ve gone through a difficult period and you get that win, it’s a really good feeling, so they’ll be coming here feeling confident.

“They’ve invested well and have good players, they want to be at the top end of the table, and so we know it’s going to be a challenge - but we have a feeling of frustration ourselves and want to respond after last weekend’s result - hopefully we can channel those feelings in the right way and get a good result.”

By Paul Hazlewood
Aaron Connolly and Neal Maupay in training.

The boss also praised the exploits of two of his forward players so far this season, speaking about the relationship on the field between fellow strikers Neal Maupay and Aaron Connolly.

“They’ve only played a game and a half together, but you’d say that the first one was very good in terms of their contribution both individually and from the team’s perspective.

“Their overall play was really positive, and I thought they also worked really well together in the first half against Aston Villa.

“They offer different threats and different types of movement. When we went a man down last weekend, it felt like we couldn’t keep the two up there, and one of them had to be sacrificed, but I’ve been delighted with their work so far.”