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Former Scotland under-21 internationalist Jamie Murphy admits he has come a long way from being a ‘skinny young boy’ at Motherwell as he relishes the mouth-watering prospect of locking horns with the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool in the Premier League.
The winger made 40 appearances to help Brighton clinch automatic promotion with a second place finish in the Championship.
Murphy departed Fir Park for Sheffield United in January 2013 before moving to Brighton two-and-a-half years later and the 27-year-old insists reaching the English top-flight is by far the biggest moment of his career.
He said: “I’ve come a long way from being in Scotland up at Motherwell and being a young skinny boy to where I am now. It’s special for me and my family, as well as the team and fans.
“It’s the highest achievement in my career. You never want to go through your career and not achieve things, so getting to the Premier League is the ultimate.
“I’m looking forward to facing the northern teams; Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool. I think a lot of my friends and family will come down for those games.
“You always want to win and do well. Our aim next year will be no different, we’ll want to win every game that we play.
“Obviously it’s going to be more difficult, as we’re playing against some massive teams, but we’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
Thousands of fans lined the street as the Brighton squad took part in the club’s promotion parade through the city and Murphy insists the supporters are among the best he has played under.
Speaking to the official Brighton website, he said: “I was expecting it to be a good day and a lot of people to turn out, but I never expected it to be quite as big as it has been.
“This is something that I’ll never forget and is one of the reasons why you work hard, do all that running and you do all that work in the gym. It’s all for days like this.
“I hope the club and the fans will remember this team for a long time, because I will. Special teams stick in your memory and this one will stay in mine.
“I’d like to thank them for all their support and everything that they do. They’ve been behind us all of the way.
“I’ve been at teams where if you lose, you get booed off the park, but that doesn’t happen here.
“If you lose, everyone encourages you to move on to the next game, and that’s been a big part of our success.”
