Brighton & Hove Albion defender Shane Duffy believes that the side can make home advantage count on Friday night against Manchester United at the Amex Stadium.
The Seagulls welcome Jose Mourinho’s men to the south coast in front of the television cameras in a game where Albion could secure top flight safety with a victory – and the Irishman says the side were confident ahead of the game.
He said, “The two away matches against them [Manchester United] have been close but at the Amex we’re a different force with the fans behind us.
“We have to replicate what we did against both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotpsur – you might have to defend for large parts of the game, but then you have to take your chances when they come.
“We don’t fear any side when we’re at home and it’s a big thing for us, we’re looking forward to getting ready for it and when you play those opposition it does tend to bring out the best in your game.
“We can take confidence with how we’ve done in our previous two games against teams who’re near the top of the table, and we have to replicate that – they’ve not been to the Amex before so it’ll be a good occasion.”
Chris Hughton’s side sit five points ahead of the relegation zone with three games of the campaign remaining, but the central defender stressed the importance of focusing on themselves doing the run-in.
“You expect the teams below you in the league to at least win a couple of games, we have to worry about ourselves.
“That’s what we’ve done all season – the teams below us have got to win their three games and if you asked us if we’d have been happy with our current position at the start of the season, we’d have snapped your hand off.
“We’ve got a huge game on Friday which we’re all looking forward to and we want to send the fans away happy after our last home game.”
Having picked up successive draws against Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley, Duffy praised the team's resilience in recent weeks.
“We’ve gone back to basics over the last few matches and we’ve gone back to what we’re good at - which is keeping clean sheets and being sound defensively.
“It was nice to do it against Burnley because they’re a tough side and the way they get the ball into the box challenges you as a defender.
“It was a bit end to end and felt like a Championship game at times, but it was nice to get back to our strengths.”