Connolly's Confidence In Gyokeres Partnership

Brighton & Hove Albion under-23 striker Aaron Connolly is confident he can form a flourishing partnership with team-mate Viktor Gyokeres, as he looks to improve on his goal tally between now and the end of the season.

The Irishman led the line alongside Gyokeres in Albion’s 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers last week, and the 18-year-old has been impressed with the Swedish forward, who curled home his second goal for the Seagulls.

He said, “Viktor adds pace and can be a real threat for us. He scored against Blackburn - he’s doing well and I’m looking forward to building a partnership with him upfront.

“You could see in the two games that we played that we worked well together. In training, we have to keep working on the link-up play and hopefully we can make it perfect.

“I’ve only got five goals this season, so I really want to add a few more before the end of the season. I know I can score goals, but I need the chances and then hopefully I can put them away.”

Simon Rusk’s team moved into the Premier League 2 Division 2 play-off positions with victory over the league leaders, and Connolly says the team are confident heading into the closing period of the campaign.

“The lads work hard in training and then when it comes to the games, everyone is focused. We have in-depth tactics for every game and just follow those instructions.

“We can play in any way - against Blackburn we played in a different style to how we played against Aston Villa. It worked in both games, we got the clean sheets, goals and points.

“The back four have been working hard all year, and we’ve started to score more goals now. If they keep doing what they’re doing, then we’ll continue to find the back of the net.

“We’ve gone six unbeaten, so if we can keep this run going, there’s no doubt that we’ll be in one of the play-off positions - I think we deserve it.

“We’re playing some of the best football that we’ve played this season, so hopefully we can keep things going.”