Mustapha Carayol was pleased to make his Brighton & Hove Albion debut following 13 months out, but was left frustrated with the nature of the side's 1-0 defeat at Rotherham.
The 26-year-old arrived from Middlesbrough on a short-term loan deal until the end of the season and believes that today's game was the final step in his recovery from a long-term knee injury.
He told seagulls.co.uk, “It went ok for me personally. I was trying to get back into the swing of things as I’ve not played for 13 months. This was possibly the last hurdle that I needed to get over to know that I can actually play and feel okay.
“For me, it was just good to be out there and try to compete with everyone else. The result wasn’t right for us, but I felt in the second half we controlled the game a bit more and we had a few half chances where we could have maybe nicked something.
“We tried to get it out wide a lot which helps me and I’m always going to try to be positive. I was trying to play with Joe (Bennett) out wide and I put in a few crosses. I always try and make chances for the strikers.
“There was a lot of frustration because we felt we gave them a really cheap goal when we were having the best of the play, but that’s football. We’ve just got to put that game behind us because we have a really tough match on Friday against Bournemouth.”
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Carayol admits that Chris Hughton took a huge gamble in securing his signature and aims to have a big impact in the remaining five games of the campaign, starting against the Cherries on Friday.
“I’m just concentrating on getting as many games as I can and try and help the gaffer, who has shown a lot of faith by bringing me here without playing any games – on his part it was a big risk. I’m here to try and help the team finish as strongly as possible and we’ll see what happens in the future.
“I’m settling in fine as well. It's good to be down south and the weather has been decent as well. All the boys are good, the staff are really friendly and everyone has made me feel welcome, so I’m happy.
“We know that Bournemouth are a hard team to play against, so I’m expecting a really tough game but we have to go out there and enjoy it by putting in a good performance.”
[h=3]ALBION V BOURNEMOUTH***
[/h]FRIDAY 10TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V HUDDERSFIELD**
[/h]TUESDAY 14TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V WATFORD***
[/h]SATURDAY 25TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 12.15PM
Original article
The 26-year-old arrived from Middlesbrough on a short-term loan deal until the end of the season and believes that today's game was the final step in his recovery from a long-term knee injury.
He told seagulls.co.uk, “It went ok for me personally. I was trying to get back into the swing of things as I’ve not played for 13 months. This was possibly the last hurdle that I needed to get over to know that I can actually play and feel okay.
“For me, it was just good to be out there and try to compete with everyone else. The result wasn’t right for us, but I felt in the second half we controlled the game a bit more and we had a few half chances where we could have maybe nicked something.
“We tried to get it out wide a lot which helps me and I’m always going to try to be positive. I was trying to play with Joe (Bennett) out wide and I put in a few crosses. I always try and make chances for the strikers.
“There was a lot of frustration because we felt we gave them a really cheap goal when we were having the best of the play, but that’s football. We’ve just got to put that game behind us because we have a really tough match on Friday against Bournemouth.”
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Carayol admits that Chris Hughton took a huge gamble in securing his signature and aims to have a big impact in the remaining five games of the campaign, starting against the Cherries on Friday.
“I’m just concentrating on getting as many games as I can and try and help the gaffer, who has shown a lot of faith by bringing me here without playing any games – on his part it was a big risk. I’m here to try and help the team finish as strongly as possible and we’ll see what happens in the future.
“I’m settling in fine as well. It's good to be down south and the weather has been decent as well. All the boys are good, the staff are really friendly and everyone has made me feel welcome, so I’m happy.
“We know that Bournemouth are a hard team to play against, so I’m expecting a really tough game but we have to go out there and enjoy it by putting in a good performance.”
[h=3]ALBION V BOURNEMOUTH***
[/h]FRIDAY 10TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V HUDDERSFIELD**
[/h]TUESDAY 14TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V WATFORD***
[/h]SATURDAY 25TH APRIL, KICK-OFF 12.15PM
Original article