Albion boss Sami Hyypia has told his players to embrace the challenge of trying to topple Championship leaders Derby County.
The Seagulls head back to the iPro Stadium tomorrow, where their play-off dreams under Oscar Garcia were crushed in May by a 4-1 defeat in the second leg.
While Derby, edged out in the final by QPR, have regrouped, Albion have struggled.
They go to the East Midlands in the relegation zone following last Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat by Fulham but, Hyypia insists, with an opportunity rather than an insurmountable test.
The Finn told The Argus: “It’s a good challenge. I don’t think we need to go there to bow to them or fear anything.
“We need to take it in a positive way, to show that we are a good team as well and can get a good results away to the league leaders.”
Hyypia, aware of the danger of becoming entrenched in the bottom three, remains upbeat about Albion’s prospects of climbing out of trouble if they can halt the lapses of concentration which have contributed to their failure to convert winning positions.
He said: “If I am miserable every day and moaning about the situation and feeling sorry for myself I don’t think it’s going to change.
“You can’t turn the clock back, you just need to look ahead at what you can do about the matter.
“That’s the most important thing, that we are mentally in order and positive, and try to control the things we can on the training field and on the pitch and then we’ll get out of this position.
“There’s still a lot of points to be won. It’s more positive than if there were nine points to play for. We need to concentrate better in games and we need some points on the table, then after that as well if we get a few results we can’t be satisfied with that.
“We need to keep going until May. You need to have the desire to want even more and do everything you can to achieve even more.”
Original article
The Seagulls head back to the iPro Stadium tomorrow, where their play-off dreams under Oscar Garcia were crushed in May by a 4-1 defeat in the second leg.
While Derby, edged out in the final by QPR, have regrouped, Albion have struggled.
They go to the East Midlands in the relegation zone following last Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat by Fulham but, Hyypia insists, with an opportunity rather than an insurmountable test.
The Finn told The Argus: “It’s a good challenge. I don’t think we need to go there to bow to them or fear anything.
“We need to take it in a positive way, to show that we are a good team as well and can get a good results away to the league leaders.”
Hyypia, aware of the danger of becoming entrenched in the bottom three, remains upbeat about Albion’s prospects of climbing out of trouble if they can halt the lapses of concentration which have contributed to their failure to convert winning positions.
He said: “If I am miserable every day and moaning about the situation and feeling sorry for myself I don’t think it’s going to change.
“You can’t turn the clock back, you just need to look ahead at what you can do about the matter.
“That’s the most important thing, that we are mentally in order and positive, and try to control the things we can on the training field and on the pitch and then we’ll get out of this position.
“There’s still a lot of points to be won. It’s more positive than if there were nine points to play for. We need to concentrate better in games and we need some points on the table, then after that as well if we get a few results we can’t be satisfied with that.
“We need to keep going until May. You need to have the desire to want even more and do everything you can to achieve even more.”
Original article