Brighton star Adam Webster opens up on his doubts and confidence issue

Now he has proven his Premier League quality, is being hailed as one of the division's standout defenders and tipped for England call-up, Adam Webster can find some humour when looking back on the days when he was battling confidence issues and things were not going quite as well.

'I remember once when I wasn't even playing [in a game],' he began, a smile at the memory emerging first which eventually developed into full on laughter.

'I was on the bench and we [Portsmouth] lost 1-0 away at Leyton Orient and one of the other young lads, who was a year above me, tried to play a pass back to the keeper.

'It got intercepted and they ran and scored, that was the deciding goal and then after the game I was getting pelters on Twitter.

'People were saying "don't worry you won't be as bad as Adam Webster." I was like "hold on a minute, I didn't even play!" That always that always sticks out in my head. I can look back and laugh now but it was quite tough at the time.'

Then there were the occasions when the defender's adventurous style of play would get him a ticking off.

'I always used to try and dribble the ball out from the back as well and it didn't always used to come off,' he said.

'I remember Mick McCarthy [his former Ipswich manager] used to scream and shout at me to be honest because I might try it in games and maybe get caught.'

Things are a little different now. There is much more pleasant reading waiting for Webster when he opens Twitter for starters.

Meanwhile Webster has thrived under his current manager Graham Potter at Brighton, become an impressive Premier League performer and also learned to pick the moments to showcase his considerable ability on the ball and avoid any more McCarthy-style rollickings.

After his