Sitting top of the league: “The benefits are there to see and it certainly breeds confidence. We had a fairly consistent team in that pre-season period and it has certainly helped not having had any bad injuries. The worst of which have only lasted a week or a week-and-a-half.
“There is nothing that breeds confidence more than winning football matches.* What we haven’t done is underestimate the win against Southend because that allowed us to use the squad and not weaken the side to keep a run going.
“We know it’s early days but if you asked me where I want to be at this stage of the season, then it’s exactly where we are.”
Bobby Zamora’s progress: “He was withdrawn from the under-21 game as a precaution because we knew he was behind everybody in terms of fitness when he arrived.
“What we’ve got to do now is take it in the appropriate way. He has been doing some good work and we’re going to assess him in the next two to three days, but at some stage we will look to fast-track him and get him involved.”
LATEST NEWS FROM*SEAGULLS.CO.UK
- ALBION SIGN WINGER
- WALSALL DATE CONFIRMED
- ALBION SIGN GERMAN DEFENDER
- REPORT: FULHAM 1 ALBION 2
- GALLERY: FULHAM
"I would hope to do more business. We lost a lot of players at the end of last season and have had a fairly big recruitment process in the summer.“We’re absolutely delighted with the business we’ve done so far and every single one of them has settled in well. Jamie Murphy came in over the weekend and we’ll look forward to the contribution he will make as well.
“But we do have a responsibility by 1st September to have the best and most competitive squad possible. Our thoughts were always to replace the lost players and we’ll continue to work as hard as we can until the last day.
Increased attacking options:* "From day one you could tell that Tomer [Hemed] was someone who was desperate to do well. He didn’t have much of a break in the summer and wants to work as hard as he can in this division. At the moment, he and Sam [Baldock] have got a good relationship together and long may it continue.
“With Jamie Murphy coming in, it gives us an extra dimension with someone that can play on both flanks. Last season we spoke about providing strikers with good service and Jamie will hopefully help us do to that. It’s something we’ve tried to develop over pre-season and will continue to develop over the season.”
[h=3]ALBION V BLACKBURN ROVERS*
[/h]SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V HULL CITY*
[/h]SATURDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V ROTHERHAM UNITED*
[/h]TUESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
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