Wednesday 8 November 2017 22:56, UK
Brighton manager Chris Hughton says his side have exceeded expectations so far this season.
The newly-promoted club are eighth in the table with fifteen points from their first eleven games in the Premier League, their most recent win coming against Swansea on Saturday.
Speaking at the Football Black List Awards in London, Hughton said: "We've certainly exceeded the expectations we had at the start of the season.
"We knew it would be a difficult start because for all of our players it was very much going into the unknown, but they've coped with it very well.
"We had two games against what we regard as two of the top six sides (Manchester City and Arsenal) and we fared quite well in those games and that gave the team confidence in the other games.
"So far we've done well but we've got a really big six weeks coming up after the international break, where we play four of the top six and I think that period will have some say in how we eventually do."
When asked if keeping Brighton up in their first season in the Premier League would be his greatest achievement in management, Hughton said: "Yes, it would.
"I've had two spells at Premier league level, a short period at Newcastle and two seasons at Norwich. In the first season we finished in eleventh place, the second season was a very difficult season and that can happen in the game.
"But the rise that Brighton have had as a club over the last four or five years would be right up there with any achievement I've had."
The Football Black List Awards celebrate the contributions to the sport of people from African and Caribbean backgrounds. Former Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and England defender Ugo Ehiogu, who died in April aged 44, had the One to Watch award named after him. It was the same honour he received from the Football Black List in March shortly before he died.
