Chris Hughton insists that he is not afraid of the prospect of leading Brighton & Hove Albion into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs should they fall short in their efforts to secure automatic promotion.
Whatever the outcome of their meeting with Derby County at the Amex Stadium today, Hughton’s side will visit Middlesbrough, the leaders, on Saturday knowing victory will guarantee a top-two finish and promotion. Like their two rivals — Burnley face Queens Park Rangers today knowing victory will likely take them up — Brighton are in control of their destiny with one of the three set to miss out in the most painful of manners.
The fear is that the team who fall short will be too crushed to rise again but Hughton has no concerns. “I have no fear about talking about the play-offs,” he said. “We have two very, very tough games. It’s very simple — we’re either going to get automatic promotion from being in the top two or we won’t. If we don’t, that means we’ll finish third and be in the play-offs. You’re very, very quickly into play-off mode. There isn’t time to dwell on things.”
Hughton has led a side that finished 20th last season to the point where he is within reach of repeating his success in taking Newcastle United up in 2010, before becoming the first Premier League manager to be dismissed the following season.
A spell in the top-flight at Norwich City also ended prematurely but the manager insists that he is not driven by unfinished business. “No, my motivation is not to get myself back into the Premier League, my motivation is to get this team into the Premier League, and do the best job that I can. That’s by far the bigger drive.”