Club news

Hat-trick Delight For In-form Connolly

By Kieran Cleeves • 24 April 2018

Brighton & Hove Albion under-23 striker Aaron Connolly was delighted to score his first hat-trick for Simon Rusk’s team in last night’s 5-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, and is now focused on achieving promotion through the play-offs.

Connolly fired a hat-trick to put the Seagulls 3-0 ahead against Wolves, and the forward felt his opening goal on the stoke of half-time gave his team-mates confidence to build further and emphatically secure victory.

He said, “It was a good team performance and the chances were put on a plate for me. They were good balls from Max [Sanders], Danny [Mandroiu] and Henrik [Bjordal] - I wouldn’t have scored without them.

“The first goal gave the team a big lift going into the second half, as we didn’t play as well as we usually do in the first half of the game.

“We came out of the traps quickly in the second half and it ended up being a good performance from the team.

“Goals give strikers confidence - it was great to get another three, and hopefully I can carry that form into the play-offs.”

Despite losing on penalties to Swansea City in the Premier League Cup, the Seagulls are unbeaten in 15 games within 90 minutes, and Connolly hopes the team can extend their impressive run and seal promotion.

“We conceded in the last minute against Reading at the beginning of January, and we came into training the following week, eager to impress and get back to winning ways,

“From then on we’ve had an unbelievable run and hopefully we can continue this form in the play-offs and win promotion.

“It would be huge because we want to play in the top league against the big teams. Just like the first team going from the Championship to the Premier League, that’s what we want to do.

“It’s a one-off game and anything can happen - but hopefully if we play like how we did in that first half, we should be able to get a positive result against Middlesbrough.”