Matt O'Riley

Completely over run with crackheads now. People openly smoking crack outside shop doors , outside the station and there is always bother between town and the station now. Got alot worse in the last 5 years imo . Still got it's charms , but even like North Laine can be dodgy , never seen a town with so many homeless , displaced, drug addcited people . Lived in and around it last 10 years. Working on a site in Edward Street last year the job got burgled 4 times. People being treated for overdoses in the city centre in the middle of the day.

 

That's a shame. Has been about 12 years since I have been there but I loved it

 

You could still have a good weekend here , but certainly got to be very careful now. Boys from up North working on site living in digs can't believe how bad it is, "worse than Blackpool" is a common comment.

As for MOR don't think it's going to work out for him they will Spend again in the summer and he's nowhere near the first 11 as it is . That injury * him.

 

Brighton’s still a great place to live in and visit, but as a party city, the nightlife (like all other UK cities) does encourage a few undesirables - with all they entail.

Stick to beer, coffees and falafels and you’ll be happy as a clam.

To matters MOR
Rutter is now the established CAM at Bha, with Pedro generally dropping in (if he’s not playing as cf) to replace him

With Rutter carried off today against Forest, MOR is now sure to pick up minutes over the next coming weeks, hopefully in his best position - and not before time

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6277822/2025/04/16/matt-oriley-brighton-first-season-interview/


Matt O’Riley on difficult Brighton start: ‘I don’t think about competition – just how I get better’



Matt O’Riley’s Brighton & Hove Albion career has not gone to plan. The 24-year-old midfielder has not started three Premier League games in succession for Brighton & Hove Albion and is yet to complete 90 minutes since signing from Celtic for £25million ($33m) last summer.

O’Riley was a first-team regular at Celtic under Ange Postecoglou and the Australian’s successor, Brendan Rodgers. He averaged a goal involvement every other game across his two-and-a-half seasons (27 goals and 35 assists in 124 appearances in all competitions). He started all of Celtic’s group games in the Champions League last season, registering assists against Atletico Madrid, Lazio and Feyenoord



He won a hat-trick of Scottish Premiership titles before returning to England, where he had started his professional career at Fulham. One of nine players signed for a total of nearly £200million last summer, O’Riley’s first season in the Premier League with Brighton has turned into a battle to establish himself as more than just a bit-part player against a backdrop of injury setbacks.

On Saturday, in a 2-2 home draw against doomed Leicester City, O’Riley was named in Brighton’s starting XI, following up his start in the 2-1 defeat against Crystal Palace the previous week. Those games represented one of only three times he has started back-to-back league games since arriving at the Amex Stadium. He has appeared in fewer than half of Brighton’s league games this season (15 appearances out of 32). O’Riley is relishing the challenge of overcoming those tribulations.

“It’s a more competitive league than in Scotland,” he tells The Athletic. “Every game poses a different challenge and that’s great. I really enjoy that because you need to find different solutions to be a team.

“We have often struggled against a low block (deep defence) this season. We created more than enough chances to win the game against Leicester. It wasn’t an issue of breaking down a low block. It was more a ruthless mindset to kill the game early but also not concede. I am enjoying being in the league. I am having a great time, but I still want to do better with the team.”


Part of the process of seeking improvement is self-assessment. “I always watch my (video) clips and see what I can do better,” O’Riley says. “We go through it as a team as well and, sometimes brutally honestly, see what we could have done better. We have to do that to know how to be better for the next game.”

There have been both sides in the early months for O’Riley, who signed a five-year contract when he joined. He should have scored against Leicester in the first half with a header. His only goal for Brighton — the winner at home to Manchester City in November (2-1) on his league debut — came on his return from 10 weeks out with ankle ligament damage sustained nine minutes into his first appearance. He was hurt in a tackle by Crawley Town defender Jay Williams in a 4-0 victory at the Amex in the Carabao Cup in August.


“That (injury) wasn’t the most frustrating one,” O’Riley says. “The most frustrating one was my knee recently after Ipswich (2-0 away win in January), because I was trying to train with it. But there was so much fluid in my knee every day — it was two months of not playing anywhere near my best capacity.

“The first injury I accepted. It was a long-term injury and I came back pretty strong and pretty healthy — whereas that one (knee) was more niggly. That has settled down and I am grateful for a bit of rhythm



Fabian Hurzeler spoke about how O’Riley has struggled to put together a run of games before the 2-1 home win in March against Fulham. The German head coach is still wrestling with the right combinations in midfield. O’Riley played for 70 minutes against Leicester in central midfield with Sweden international Yasin Ayari, having spent 63 minutes in the preceding 2-1 defeat away to rivals Crystal Palace deputising as a ‘No 10’ (attacking midfielder) for the injured Georginio Rutter. So, what is O’Riley’s best position?

“I am probably most optimal as an eight (central midfielder), just because I feel as though I can help in both aspects of the game, whether we are building up, whether we are going forward,” he says. “I am lucky to be able to run a lot as well. I am not somebody who is going to complain if I am playing six (defensive midfielder), eight or 10. I just want to be on the pitch.

“Competition is always good. I am used to that here and at Celtic. We had just as many midfielders at Celtic. It brings the best out of you, because you need to keep your level high every day in training as well. Everyone needs to be ready. I enjoy it because I get to play against good players every day in training and they make you better. I don’t really think about competition. I just think about how I can get better.



That includes trying to get the better of boyhood club Fulham and others in the race for European places. O’Riley is a Denmark international through his mother, Gitte, but he was born in Thames Ditton, a village on the banks of the River Thames in London’s south-western commuter belt. The former England youth international went through the academy at Fulham before turning down a contract at 19 and ending up at MK Dons for a year in League One before joining Celtic in January 2022.




Fulham are a place above Brighton in ninth, separated by goal difference. Both teams are on the same number of points (48) as Bournemouth in eighth. The number of English clubs that will qualify for Europe remains unclear. It is subject to multiple permutations, but there is a good chance that eighth place will be good enough for a Conference League spot. With six games left of an up-and-down campaign, Hurzeler’s side need to bounce back again, this time from a run of four league matches without a win, for O’Riley to be involved in European competition once more next season.

“The past is done, we have just got to focus on what we do next to get better,” he says. “The difference between the top teams is that they are more ruthless. We have got a little bit to go to get to that level. We are good enough to beat any team. We’ve just got to do it consistently.

“We spent a lot of money in the summer, we’ve got a good squad, we’ve got a big squad, and it’s up to us to punish teams.”

 

That's not been posted by Matt O'Riley btw...that's Matt O'Reilly who is a musician.

 

DOH!

He's still right though lol

 

Get him home!