'I was 18 and Portsmouth followers were killing me. It was awful': Brighton and former Ipswich man Adam Webster on battles with social media critics

The central defender has totalled 111 Premier League appearances for Brighton and will next week compete against AEK Athens in the Europa League.

However, while representing a Blues side struggling in League Two, the former Chichester High School pupil had periods of being subjected to Twitter abuse.

And, as an 18-year-old, he even received criticism over a 1-0 defeat at Leyton Orient in March 2013 in which he never played.

Webster told The News: ‘There was a period when the team was struggling and I was getting pelters from the fans, they were killing me.

‘When you come through the Academy, some players are loved, but I was never one of those players, rightly or wrongly. I would hear it in games, I’d get Tweets about it.

‘I remember Leyton Orient away, when Orient won 1-0 after capitalising on Dan Butler’s backpass. I was on the bench and didn’t come on.

‘After the match I was being copied into Tweets which said “Don’t worry Dan, you’ll never be as bad as Adam Webster”. I didn’t even play and was still getting killed!

‘That was awful, I hated it, I didn’t enjoy that. You don’t want to see those sorts of things, I was only young too, aged 18, so that was tough.

‘I remember seeing similar bits directed at Ben Close. I’ve played with him and he’s a good footballer, but he used to get a lot of stick as well, despite being from Fratton. He’s a proper Pompey boy.

‘In my case, that was probably the consequence of not playing in my natural position. Obviously I wasn’t playing that well, but it’s still not nice to hear, especially when you aren’t even playing and are still getting killed.

‘You’re a teenage lad, not in the team, low on confidence and being copied into stuff said about you on Twitter. Seeing that was another kick in the nuts.’

The direction of Webster’s Pompey career changed significantly in April 2015, when caretaker boss Gary Waddock handed him his favoured central-defensive role.

Barely 12 months later, he was in the Championship with Ipswich following an impressive 2015-16 season under Paul Cook.

Webster added: ‘It was only from Stevenage when I started playing regularly at centre-back.

‘Prior to that the fans probably didn’t have much faith in me, yet I hadn’t been playing in my best position.

‘Hopefully once they saw me there, it changed a few minds.’

MORE: Pompey were releasing me, I was heading to non-league': Adam Webster on saving his career – and planning for Europe