Dunk's Survival Satisfaction

Brighton & Hove Albion defender Lewis Dunk believes the opening day fixture against Manchester City prepared Chris Hughton’s team for a difficult season in the Premier League, but expressed his happiness to secure safety after tonight’s victory against Manchester United.

Pascal Gross headed the winning goal for the Seagulls to guarantee their survival in the Premier League, and Dunk was delighted to see his team-mates get over the line after an outstanding performance at the Amex Stadium.

He said, “It’s obviously a great feeling, we finally done it after a hard season. We put everything into every game and thankfully we got there in the end.

“We got thrown in at the deep end against Manchester City on the opening day of the season - the Premier League champions and probably one of the best sides in history.

“I thought we did alright on that day, and that showed that if we can do it against them, then we can do it against anyone.

“We showed that again today, against a team like Manchester United with the huge history that they’ve got.”

The 26-year-old, who came through the club’s academy system, stressed how much securing Premier League safety with his hometown club means to him - after Albion kept their tenth clean sheet of the season.

“For me, it’s probably a little bit more special. I’ve seen the club rise from nothing really. I’ve seen it from the times where the University was our training ground.

“But to see where the club is now, it’s amazing. We’re in the Premier League again next season, and it’s only going to improve from here.

“We’ve got everything to be a massive club, and hopefully the chairman invests again and we’ll push on next season.”

The Seagulls now travel to Manchester City and Liverpool to finish their Premier League season, and Dunk stressed that the focus is now on improving further, starting with Wednesday’s visit to the Etihad Stadium.

“We looked at these last few games and it was a sore sight to see, but obviously we’ve secured safety in the first one.

“We can enjoy the remaining games, but of course we still want to go and win those matches. We don’t want to be humiliated, so we’ll prepare the same and go again.

“Our aim was to stay in the league in the first year, that’s the aim of every team that gets promoted.

“But now we want to improve from here. Hopefully we can get safe earlier next season and then see how high we can get in the table.”