Club news

Duffy Confident On Home Soil

By Alex Stedman • 03 October 2018

Brighton & Hove Albion defender Shane Duffy believes the side can be confident of continuing their good home form when they host West Ham United on Friday night, kick-off 8pm.

The Seagulls entertain Manuel Pellegrini’s men in front of the Sky Sports cameras on the south coast, and the Irishman insisted that the side can use playing on home soil to their advantage.

He said, “We know it’ll be tough because they’ve come into form over the last few weeks and have some strong players, but we’re the home side.

“We feel like we can beat anyone at home and that’s shown over the years – we have to play our own game and hopefully we can get a clean sheet and a win. 

“We knew that anything we got on Saturday would be a bonus, but our focus is now firmly on Friday night’s game because we know we need to get some points from it."

Chris Hughton’s side have picked up five points from their seven Premier League matches so far - the defender reflected on the points total, as well as the competition for places within the squad. 

“It’s been a good start, but you have to play everyone at some point and perhaps we would have liked a few more points on the board.

“I think our performances have been better than our points tally suggests – we’ve come from two goals down on two occasions recently and that’s where we felt we could have perhaps had some more points. 

“We’ve got a few knocks at the moment but that means there are opportunities for players and I thought Beram [Kayal] and Jurgen [Locadia] were great on Saturday. 

“Beram had a tough job of marking David Silva and Jurgen was up front on his own, so they were both great and that’s what we need – that competition is healthy and the manager will give them a chance.”

Duffy has found the back of the net twice already this season, with a strike against Manchester United and a header against Southampton at St Mary’s – doubling his club tally since arriving in 2016.

“I always felt like I was getting on the end of crosses and set-pieces last year and it would just be a case of me putting the chances away.

“They weren’t dropping for me, but I feel like I can score in every game so that’s the belief I have. 

“I’ve managed to get a few this year and I’ve also helped set some up for the lads too, so hopefully there’s a few more to come.”