Brighton’s Matt O’Riley Discusses Return from Injury and First Goal

Brighton midfielder Matt O’Riley provided comments to BBC Match of the Day after scoring his inaugural goal for the Seagulls against Manchester City. He stated: “It feels really nice, it’s just nice to be back playing football. It’s my first injury in professional football. I was able to stay positive during my rehab and that has enabled me to come back even sooner which is really nice.” Regarding his teammate Carlos Baleba, O’Riley remarked: “He is strong. To put it simply he is an absolute beast. It’s nice to play alongside someone like that because he just smashes everyone and makes my life quite easy.” When questioned about whether he believed the game was winnable, O’Riley responded: “Yeah, especially when there is only one goal in it. The kind of team that we are, we create so many chances it was just a matter of taking those chances and being ruthless. Against teams like Man City it’s little details and today we were ruthless.” Addressing the potential for Brighton to win trophies, he affirmed: “That should always the aim right. The manager speaks about trying to challenge the establishment and that’s what we are trying to do. We’re a club that is progressing really nicely in my opinion so why not.”