Brighton star relishing the chance to 'be the man' after departures of key players

The Scotland international, 22, has been one of the first names on the teamsheet this season after being bedded in slowly last term.

The departures of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister gave Gilmour a huge opportunity to become the key midfielder in the Brighton team.

Gilmour said: "We lost two great players, Moises and Alexis, but when you get the opportunity to step up, a bit of responsibility, to be the man in midfield, with Pascal [Gross] – and Pascal does it week in, week out – you have to step up and be counted.

“I am enjoying playing, working hard with my team, the staff, the manager and I hope I can continue to do the right thing.

“I think I am progressing well, [with] confidence, playing in the right way, understanding how we play, so it has been good.

“We want to keep doing well and get back to winning ways.”

Gilmour was speaking ahead of the Europa League match against Marseille. Albion needed a win to ensure they topped Group B and avoided a play-off tie against a team dropping down from the Champions League.

"It’s going be a tough, tough game,” Gilmour said.

"They're a good team with good players, but we are confident in ourselves. We’ve been working this week on Marseille and I think it will be a good match and hopefully we can put the game plan right and get the job done.

“We go into every game trying to win and tomorrow there’s no point drawing.

“I think the first two games was a difficult experience but when we went to Marseille, it kind of clicked. We knew what we had to do to perform at this level and I think the two Ajax games as well were really good for us with two wins and clean sheets.

“There’s not been an easier game in this competition so for us to kick on and keep learning and keep improving and hopefully we can go as far as we can in the competition.”

In his playing days, Marseille’s head coach Gennaro Gattuso starred for Rangers – where Gilmour’s football career started.

The former Chelsea star said: “Of course I’ve watched YouTube clips of Gattuso. My Grandpa always told me about the old players at Rangers.

“But Gattuso was a very aggressive player and also very good football player with the ball so to add parts of that my game is nice.

“He was a top player for Rangers and had a great career.”