Club news

Duffy: Be Excited About Tough Schedule

By Kieran Cleeves • 17 April 2018

Brighton & Hove Albion defender Shane Duffy believes there can only be room for excitement surrounding their final five matches of the season, which sees them take on five of the current top seven in the Premier League.

The Seagulls welcome Tottenham Hotspur to the Amex Stadium this evening, before playing Burnley, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool, and the Irishman spoke positively about Albion’s tough schedule.

He said, “For a club like this, it’s something that you’ve got to take in your stride and look forward to.

“What a week our last week is. It may be tough, but this is why we’re in the Premier League.

“It’s something that I'm looking forward to and the lads are really up for it. We’re delighted we’ve got these games all at once.

“The adrenaline is going to be high and you’re going to want to play the best game of your life against all of them.”

Spurs striker Harry Kane has scored 25 league goals for the north London club this season, and Duffy is looking forward to testing himself against the 24-year-old on the south coast.

“He’s unbelievable. He’s got everything that you want in a striker. He’s got the movement and creativity to set somebody up, and also the finishing - you can’t give him a sniff or he'll punish you.

“It’s great for me to test myself and see where I’m at in my game. He’s one of the best strikers in the world, so it’s good to test yourself against somebody like him.

“I think he’s the best striker in the Premier League. I enjoy playing against the best players in the league. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do against him again.”

Albion find themselves in 13th position ahead of their final five games of the campaign, and Duffy stressed that although results of late haven’t been overly satisfying, the team remain confident in their battle to stay in the Premier League.

“With the teams in the Premier League this year, we’ve always believed that we could compete with them and try to finish as high as we could.

“We knew it would be tough, because we’ve got a lot of inexperienced players at this level, but we had a confident team from last season and the manager stuck with us.

“There’s been ups and downs, but I think we’ve still got plenty of points in us.

“It’s tight down the bottom and maybe a lot of the teams down there didn’t expect to be having the seasons that they’re having.

“We’re still confident and find ourselves in a good position at this stage of the season. We’ve got to put the last few weeks behind us and bounce back.”