Brighton were on the receiving end of an embarrassing thrashing by Nottingham Forest earlier this season but are now chasing glory in the FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend
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Jan Paul van Hecke is eyeing an FA Cup semi-final with Brighton
Jan Paul van Hecke is eyeing an FA Cup semi-final with Brighton(Image: Getty Images)
Jan Paul van Hecke now looks back upon it as a “good thing” and a turning point in Brighton ’s season.
But less than two months ago, the 7-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest felt like a nightmare and humiliation for Fabian Hurzeler’s men. It was their lowest point but it refocused the dressing room and, after some soul searching and a lot of determination, they have won six and drawn one of their next seven games.
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That is some turnaround for Brighton and now the script is written for them to face Forest again in the quarter-final of the FA Cup at the AmEx on Saturday evening. Brighton defender Van Hecke is enjoying another impressive season on the pitch and he talks well off it as he insisted this is not about revenge even if they are determined to prove their point.
Van Hecke, 24, said: “If you get beat 7-0, there will be motivation to do better. But the biggest motivation is to go to the next round and play in the semi-finals and go to Wembley. But everyone knows we got beat 7-0, so everyone will speak about it a lot. But for me, the biggest motivation is to go to the next round.
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“It's a hard one. But it can also be a good thing. And that happened afterwards. There's a lot of character in this group and in this club. Every time you see we get a heavy defeat, we always showed a reaction and that's what we are about. So I was quite confident that we would come back. We were like: ‘Nah, it's not happening to us.’
“And that's what I said about the character in the building. Like, all right, we can have one bad game, but we will make sure we change things around. And then also from that point, you feel like something is happening.
“We now have six wins, one draw. But now also we have nine games in the league left. Hopefully we have a few more in the cup. And then I think we can do big, big things.”
Van Hecke has gained a reputation of being a voice in the dressing room. He is regarded by his team-mates as a leader which makes his story all the more impressive. He grew up in a football-mad family - his two brothers still play at a lower level in Holland while his late father remains an inspiration - and was playing for NAC Breda in the Dutch second division.
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Van Hecke laughs when he recalls former technical director Dan Ashworth and Brighton’s current technical director David Weir trying to convince him he could be a Premier League player. “I was like: ‘Yeah, of course, you tell me this because you want me to play for your club!’” he smiles. “I had big doubts but they had a plan.” The plan was to spend one year on loan in Holland and one in the Championship then he would be ready for Brighton.
Spells at Heerenveen and Blackburn followed. Five years later, he is a contender to be Brighton’s Player of the Year. He loves Brighton, is getting married in the summer and has even been doing yoga to help improve his flexibility and movement on the pitch.
Van Hecke has also become a first-choice defender for Holland and lined up alongside Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk in their back-to-back Nations League games with Spain. The European champions eventually won on penalties but Holland pushed them all the way.
Van Hecke added: “I don't know if I'm a leader. That's what other people probably say. But I just try to do my best and also help my team-mates. And I like to also motivate other players, motivate myself as well.
Netherlands' Jan Paul van Hecke blocks Spain's Ferran Torres
The defender started both of Netherlands' matches during the international break
“I’ve kind of always been like that. It also helps my own game. And if it helps other players, then I will do it. I'm not just shouting because I'm shouting. When I went to the national team, I was really confident, because we won a lot and I felt really strong. I was like: ‘alright, now I can play.’
“I played against the best players in the Premier League, but now I'm going to play against Spain. And they're probably the best players in Spain or Barcelona, wherever they play. They're European champions. And it just felt really good.”
Van Hecke says Brighton can do “special things” in the FA Cup this season - and qualify for the Champions League. He insists most Brighton fans would dearly love to win their first ever major trophy and would not trade that for anything.
But that will not stop them from also trying to gatecrash the top four places and guarantee themselves a place in Europe’s top competition. Van Hecke said: “If you ask real fans what they prefer, they will say winning a trophy, because Brighton never won one of their highest trophies. So they will be really, really happy if we win one.
“But I think you can do both as well. And if you win that FA Cup, then you get also a European spot.”
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Brighton have already overcome Chelsea and Newcastle to get this far and will have to take another Premier League scalp to reach the semi-finals. Van Hecke said: “We had a strong draw before. So we played Chelsea at home, we played Newcastle away.
“And now we got another big one against Forest. We really want to do special things in it. It's not just winning this game, of course. But you need to first win this game. You cannot look too much further forward.
“There are nine games in the league and we are only two points from the Champions League. That's already a big opportunity. And then you have the cup as well. So, yeah, it's exciting times.
“You have Liverpool, of course, and then you have Arsenal, and then you've got a lot of good teams playing for the same spots, and they're almost even with each other. And the quality is really high from those teams.
“So that's really enjoyable for us, but also for the league, because it's a good thing that you've got so many high-quality teams now.”
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