Aaron Hughes praised young keeper Christian Walton following the keeper’s Brighton & Hove Albion debut in the 2-0 Capital One Cup defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite the loss, Walton could do nothing about either of the Premier League side’s goals, and put in a competent display between the posts, impressing Northern Ireland international Hughes.He told seagulls.co.uk, “It is obviously his first game but he has probably been getting words of encouragement from everyone before the match just to settle him down.
“But he comes for his first cross and that speaks volumes. He takes that and straight away you could tell he was confident.
“His decision-making when to come for the ball, and his shot stopping on a slippery surface when the ball is bobbling around, where he was gathering it and keeping it, was excellent, so you couldn’t ask for a better debut from a young keeper.”
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Meanwhile the defender praised the Seagulls’ overall performance at White Hart Lane and feels the squad should use the display to help turn their league form around.“When you come here you expect them to have big spells where they have a lot of possession and put pressure on us. They are a Premier League side playing at home and when you look through their side there is a lot of quality, and even the players they brought on in the second half were just adding strength to that quality.
“In their decision-making they are so decisive. When they do decide to go at you, they go at you with pace, power and technical ability.
“So just that level of decision-making, weighing slight little balls in and picking the right passes, you have to be switched on for 90 minutes.
“You come off at the end probably as much mentally fatigued as you are physically but it is great to come and test ourselves against these teams.
“We always knew it was going to be a tough game but we just wanted to come here and make sure we put in a good solid performance, and knew if we did that we gave ourselves a better chance of maybe getting something from the game.
“As it turned out it didn’t go for us but when we look back we can be pleased with the performance we put in.
“Hopefully that gives us confidence to go into the rest of the league games from now up until Christmas, because it is going to be a busy time and probably a time where we have a good opportunity to put some points on the board if we can get a run going.
“We put in a good shift so on the whole that should give us confidence.”
[h=3]ALBION V WIGAN
[/h]TUESDAY 4TH November, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V blackburn
[/h]saturday 8th november, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]Albion v fulham
[/h]SATURDAY 29TH NOVEMber, kick-off 3pm
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