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Brighton manager Sami Hyypia already having impact after week in charge

Image: Sami Hyypia: Winning start at Lewes

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Sami Hyypia was thrilled to see his first game in charge end in a resounding 5-0 victory, after just a week at the helm.

The former Liverpool defender was brought in to replace Oscar Garcia, who resigned as head coach following the defeat by Derby in the Championship play-off semi-finals last season.

Saturday's pre-season friendly against non-league Lewes FC was all Brighton after Inigo Calderon converted a corner in the 36th minute, and the result snowballed to a 5-0 thrashing with goals from Kazenga Lua Lua, Craig Mackail-Smith and a double from Shamir Fenelon.

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Sami Hyypia won his first match in charge of Brighton after they thrashed Lewes.

Hyypia spoke to Sky Sports News about his early triumph.

“I saw many things on the pitch that we have worked on,” he said.

“A week is a very short time to bring new ideas into the players’ heads. I think it was very good to see that the players were trying to do those things.”

Despite the win for the Seagulls and their new boss, Hyypia wants to keep a culture of improvement in the team.

“Of course you always look for areas where you can do better,” he said.

“At some stage we will sit down with the squad and see things that we need to work on.”

Nevertheless, it seems an astute strategy went exactly to plan.

“We kept a tempo over the 90 minutes which was one of our goals, and even if it gets easier to keep the tempo and try to score as many goals as possible.” 

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