This is why Brighton stalwart got ‘goosebumps’ during pre-season friendly at QPR

Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele paid tribute to Brighton’s ‘absolutely amazing’ fans after a sell-out away crowd watched them beat QPR in the penultimate pre-season friendly.
As many 7,767 fans turned up at Loftus Road this afternoon (Saturday, August 3) – including 2,919 away fans.

“How good was that today?” Steele said on the fans, post-match.

“You come away from home in pre-season and it’s full behind the goal. I thought ‘wow’. It’s goosebump stuff.

“You don’t expect that in pre-season but that’s our fans – they’re absolutely amazing. Home and away. We get to play at home next week.

“Hopefully we can show a bit more than today and keep improving and striving towards the Premier League.”

Steele, 33, said there were ‘lots of positives’ to take after a narrow win over their Championship opponents, with Danny Welbeck scoring the winner from the penalty spot.

“We restricted them to minimal chances,” the goalkeeper said. “A very positive performance.

“In the last two games, we scored five and four – that’s football. The good thing is we are creating a lot of chances. In two weeks time, hopefully they hit the net.

“We’ve got competition all over the pitch. In every position we have lads the manager can trust. We are building a culture and a team spirit. He’s got options all over. It’s up to us to put in displays that makes him question his team selection.”

Hurzeler is the fourth manager Steele has worked under since moving to Brighton in 2018 – following Chris Hughton, Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi.

The former Sunderland man said ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and it will take time to learn the new manager’s methods.

“The manager has spoken about that a lot,” Steele said. “Lay the foundations before we get to the top of the house.

“You can see how we’re playing aggressive, transitional football, which maybe we haven’t for a little while.

“You can see how dangerous we are when we win the ball up high. We look a real threat going forward. I was really pleased defensively, today. We were really good. A massive positive for us.

“I am [looking forward to new season]. We’ve had an amazing couple of years or so. We’ve now got a chance to go again. Rebuild and take another step forward and see how far our limit is. The sky is the limit. We can keep improving every day.”