PROMOTED! Hughton hails Premier League new boys Brighton - ‘It’s a wonderful achievement’

Published on: 18 April 2017

Brighton & Hove Albion have gained promotion to the Premier League from the Championship for the very first time.

The Seagulls beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 on Easter Monday to increase their lead at the top of the second division table over Newcastle United to seven points and their position in the top two to 13 points ahead of third-placed Reading an 14 clear of fourth-placed Huddersfield Town.

It is the first time since 1983 that Brighton have reached the top flight and the first time since the Premier League was introduced in 1992, allowing them to become the 48th club to do so.

After the victory over the Latics, manager Chris Hughton spoke of his delight at achieving automatic promotion.

"It's a wonderful achievement and there's so many people that I'm absolutely delighted for, certainly the chairman [Tony Bloom]," he said on Sky Sports.

"He's a local man and has invested an incredible amount of money in this football club.

"I knew we had a group of lads that were capable of doing it, but being capable of doing it and actually doing it are two different things. They've been good all season. They've bounced back and shown good determination and desire to win as many games as possible.

"Right at this moment, this is the most exciting one [achievement]. I went up with Newcastle as a team that just came down, and although we'd lost players, I had a very strong team.

"This is a club that haven't been in the Premier League. This was a club that had been in the play-offs two years running before I got here, so it wasn't a club that was used to being at the bottom end of the division."

Source: tribalfootball.com

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