Bournemouth v Brighton: The key points from Chris Hughton's pre-match FA Cup press conference
Injury update
“Bernardo would be the only one (doubt), he’s certainly better this morning.
"What we’re hoping is it’s a little bit more fatigue. He felt his hamstring area, he’s played a lot of games having not played so many games at the start of the season and now gone through a big period of games so certainly a lot better this morning.”
Goalkeepers
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Hide Ad“That’s why when we brought both keepers in the summer, we wanted that level of competition in the goalkeeping group and both of them have done really well.
"They’ve pushed Maty (Ryan) to the level where he is in this moment and certainly in the two games with David’s (Button) appearances we’ve been delighted with him. Jason (Steele) was a close call because he is who will start on Saturday. He is one that’s also pushed and pushed really hard.”
FA Cup
“I’ve got a lot of decisions to make, I must admit when you’ve got that Tuesday midweek it gives you that extra day to assess, so there’s lot of decisions I haven’t made yet. It’s certainly a game we want to win. We know the difficulty levels because we’ve experienced it there and we haven’t had too much fortune playing there. This is a cup competition that we want to go through in.
“In regards to the team, I have a lot of decisions to make. The good thing is apart from Bernardo, and of course the two we’re aware of, Jahanbakhsh and Izquierdo, we have everyone else to pick from.”
Transfer window
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Hide Ad“At this moment I think we’ll be doing very minimal business if any at all. What we’ve got is a squad that we’ve built over the last couple of seasons and in particular the players we brought in last summer and January in Locadia’s case, that are now managing to get games in the team and be very much part of the squad.
“I think our recent recruitment in particular has held us in good stead and I don’t think we need really to improve the squad. What possibly might happen is one or two players going out on loan, also certainly from the under 23’s maybe two or three going out on loan. I think that’s more of a possibility than bringing anyone in.”
Aaron Connelly
“With how well he’s done in the under-23s, the interest in him is normal.
"From our point of view, we’re making decisions on what would be best for him, whether having him around is going to give him the opportunities. It’s about the offers that come in, do we want to have him around or would it be best for his development and for us as a club to allow him to go out on loan so they’re the decisions we’re making at the moment but he’s a young player that’s in a good place at the moment.”
Potential cup run
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Hide Ad“Really looking forward to it and it is a little bit of rest bite from our league campaign. It doesn’t take an edge off it but in some ways, it’s different but it’s exciting. There isn’t anybody, certainly our supporters that wouldn’t like to see us have a good cup run.
“It’s always going to be a special competition, it’s the best cup competition in the world, what you’re always hoping is that you’re able to go through and pick up a home tie. The excitement did us a favour last year and can add to whatever we have in the league campaign.”
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