Graham Potter happy to turn the page on Brighton’s winless run

Posted Monday, December 27, 2021 by PA

Graham Potter was delighted to change an unwelcome narrative after Brighton halted an 11-match winless run by beating Brentford 2-0 in the Premier League.

Top-scorer Neal Maupay sealed an overdue three points for Albion with a stunning strike against his former club late in the first half following a fine 34th-minute opener from Leandro Trossard.

Brentford improved in the second period but two superb saves from Seagulls goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and a brilliant goal-line clearance from Marc Cucurella helped end a barren streak dating back to September 19.

“As has been pointed out, it’s been quite a while,” said head coach Potter, whose side had drawn eight of their previous 11 top-flight fixtures.

“Whilst we have been picking up points, that was important for us tonight.

“We’re on the back of a little run that we’re frustrated with, which isn’t very nice and to win was fantastic, really pleased for the boys.

“We’ve only lost three in that run, we’ve had a lot of draws and we’ve had a lot of positive performances.

“But the narrative is the narrative and you have to deal with it. At the moment, we’re on 23 points and that’s not a bad return.

“Whilst you don’t win there is that statistic, that feedback you’re getting, you have to deal with it.

“The group has always been really together, really focused and really concentrated on what we have to do. That’s why it’s nice tonight that we have that feeling.”

Victory for Brighton lifted them to ninth position, three points above their opponents.

Trossard instinctively volleyed the opener over onrushing Bees goalkeeper Alvaro Fernandez following a delightful through ball from Enock Mwepu.

Maupay – a £20million signing from the Bees in August 2019 – then thundered his seventh goal into the top right corner from the edge of the 18-yard box just eight minutes later.

Brentford boss Thomas Frank felt the quick-fire goals left his side with too much to do after the restart and rued a lack of cutting edge in front of goal.

Sanchez saved well from Shandon Baptiste and Ethan Pinnock, while a header from the latter was also somehow kept out by the alert Cucurella.

“Second half we showed more without being fantastic but definitely more and we had the chances to score the 2-1 goal that could have made it more interesting and put a little bit more pressure on Brighton,” said Frank.

“Over the 90 minutes, I think it was a fairly even game that could have been a draw.

“But if you look in the time-frames of when did they score the (opening) goal and when they got up 2-0, it was difficult for us to come back.

“On the day we just didn’t have enough to shoot with or come back.”