Brighton & Hove Albion continued their good pre-season, with a resounding 4-0 win over Birmingham City.

First-half strikes from Glenn Murray and Jurgen Locadia made it 2-0 at half-time.

Shane Duffy then scored a second-half brace to complete the rout.

Story of the game

Graham Potter fielded a very strong Albion side for the game against the Championship side which was as follows: Ryan; Duffy, Dunk, Burn; Montoya, Stephens, Propper, March; Locadia, Murray, Trossard.

The Seagulls took only eight minutes to open the scoring, with a terrific passing move. It began with a one-two between Dan Burn and Leandro Trossard. Burn then played it to Davy Propper and he found his compatriot Locadia. 

The Dutch striker then picked out Murray, who calmly slotted past former teammate, David Stockdale.

10 minutes later it was two, as Stockdale's ball out was intercepted by Trossard and played a one-two with Murray, before then playing the ball to Locadia on the edge of the box.

The striker then spun his man and powerfully finished into the bottom left corner, giving Stockdale no chance.

The home side were denied by the woodwork early in the second half, as Dan Crowley’s corner found one-time Albion loan signing Gary Gardner, but the midfielder’s close-range header crashed against the bar.

With 72 minutes gone, Duffy made it three peeling away at the back post from Trossard's free-kick and Duffy's initial effort was superbly saved by Stockdale, but Duffy followed up and scored colliding with the post in doing so.

Martin Montoya was proving an attacking threat in the second half, and came close to a fourth, as he robbed Blues left-back Kristian Pedersen and unleashed an impressive curling, left-foot shot, which cannoned off the bar and just the wrong side of the Blues goal line from an Albion perspective.

In the 90th minute, Duffy made it four in a carbon copy of the third goal with Trossard's free-kick picking out Duffy, who this time scored with his first attempt.

Albion front three look a handful

One thing that stood out, was how well the front three of Murray, Locadia and Trossard combined. 

The three of them showed great movement and understanding with each other.

They were also involved in all the goals with Trossard getting three assists, Murray scoring one and Locadia getting a goal and an assist.

If the three of them play they did against Birmingham then a lot of Premier League sides will have a tough afternoon.

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