Brighton manager Chris Hughton prioritises Premier League over FA Cup ahead of quarter-final tie

Chris Hughton says the Premier League remains his main focus with Brighton and insists that anything they achieve in the FA Cup is a “brilliant bonus”.

Brighton beat rivals Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park to take them to 33 points with eight matches remaining ahead of their FA Cup quarter-final match against Championship Millwall on Sunday.

Hughton made nine changes from his previous Premier League side when Brighton beat West Brom in the fifth round and is poised to do so again with top-flight survival his priority.

The south-coast side got to the quart-final of the competition last year for the first time since 1985-86 and were beaten at Old Trafford by Manchester United, but with Millwall their opponents next week, there is a good chance they can go one better and play at Wembley in the semi-final.

Millwall are the lowest rank side remaining in the competition and victory for Hughton’s side at The Den could pit them against Watford or Crystal Palace, who meet in the quarter-final.

The Brighton manager assured supporters he would respect the cup, but placed greater importance on avoiding relegation. “Staying in this division is still the most important thing to me,” he said,

“I know what staying in the cup means to the supporters and hence that’s why we’ve given everything we can in the cup and we will do on Sunday. Making sure we’re in this division next season in my thinking is the most important thing. Any progress we can make in the cup is a brilliant bonus for us.

Brighton beat Palace twice in a domestic season for the first time 35 years, Anthony Knockaert’s stunning late goal wrapping up the points after Luka Milivojevic levelled the score following Glenn Murray’s early strike, and Hughton wants this to be a platform to climb the table.

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“I will be incredibly disappointed if we don’t build on this,” he said.

“We’ve got to try and finish the season as strong as we can, that’s back to back wins and teams of our level don’t get so many of them a season. We’ve had one three-win streak and we’ve got to work hard to get as many points as we can.”

Crucial to the win at Selhurst Park was Brighton’s disciplined and structured defending, led by Lewis Dunk. The Brighton-born defender dealt with every delivery into the box and was on hand to produce some superb last-ditch tackles, including one brilliant block to deny Wilfried Zaha inside the area.

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His early form this season was rewarded with a first England cap in a friendly match against the USA in November and Hughton said Gareth Southgate would be wise to consider his again.

“He is that level (for England). What got him the cap in the first place is what he has now and there wouldn’t be any player in the England manager’s thinking or plans that is not going to be up and down, they’re not going to be brilliant every week.

“Dunk is a centre-half and he is going to be tested in this division. I don’t think he’s changed and he’s still at the same level.

“I thought he was very good today and these are the types of games that both him and Shane needed to be, anything lesser from our two centre-halves and I don’t know if we end up winning the game. They were put under a lot of pressure with balls into the box and had to stay on their feet. Talking about Dunk, I thought he was brilliant today.”