Montoya wants Brighton to get safe and then start looking up the table

The 27-year-old right-back joined Albion from Valencia in August and has made 16 appearances this season.

Brighton are 13th in the top flight, seven points clear of the bottom three and seven points behind seventh-placed Watford.

The Spaniard feels Albion are in good shape and after Saturday's FA Cup tie with West Brom, the Seagulls face Fulham, Watford and Burnley.

Montoya feels games against sides outside the top six are where Brighton need to pick up their points and said: “In the end, the games where we need to take points are against those teams in our league, if you like, in our table.

“Let’s get points from those games as soon as possible so we feel all the more comfortable in the table.

“Yes, we want to be as high as we can. We have a good team, a humble team and we will fight to be safe as soon as we can.

“Then, we can start looking at how high we finish.

“If we can be in the top ten, all the better.

“We are in good shape. I don’t like to think about the wrong end of the table but you have to be realistic.

"We need to think about being safe and taking points off teams in our league, our level.

“From then on, if we can be closer to ninth place than 13th, all the better.”

Brighton lost 2-1 away to Manchester United on Saturday and Montoya says Albion are keen to get a result on the road against a top-six side.

He said: “It would be great to win a match away against one of the big teams.

“We have already won at home to Manchester United in our second league match.

“We will keep trying to do it again."

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