Brighton midfielder Dale Stephens wants himself and his teammates to get Albion to the 40 point mark as quick as possible.

The Seagulls currently sit 13th in the Premier League ​with 35 points to their name and seven points above the drop.

However, Brighton have only picked up one points from their last three games and travel to arch rivals, Crystal Palace on Saturday before then having to play five of the top seven in their final games of the season.

40 points the target

Speaking to the Brighton and Hove Independent, Stephens knows the importance of hitting the 40 point mark said: “The sooner you hit 40 points obviously the goals will change but we’ve not managed to do it yet and the first and only job we can do is get to that mark and do it as soon as possible.

“We looked at the games we had two or three games ago and said ‘look we need to obviously pick up more points’ and we’ve only managed to pick up a point in the last two and that’s been disappointing. We feel like we have still got a lot of work to do.”

​Last Saturday's 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town was their seventh draw at The Amex and Stephens feels they could be seen as missed opportunities.

“Perhaps. I think you can analyse the season and nit-pick throughout but I think generally we have played well at home and that is where we have picked up most of our points.

“We are still confident. We have home games to come in front of our fans and we can still get the points we need to be safe.

“It was obviously a disappointing result (against Huddersfield). Overall I think we edged it in chances over the game and with two one-on-ones we are quite disappointed that we’ve not converted them.”

Crunch clash at the weekend

Going into the visit to Selhurst Park, Albion sit four points and four places above their rivals: “It’s another big game for us," he said.

"Both teams need points and it happens to be against our rivals.

“It doesn’t need any build up from me. It is going to be a good atmosphere, a good game for everybody and we know it is important we get three points.