Manager Chris Hughton has said the warning signs were there for Brighton in the weekend’s clash with Everton but the side struggled to adapt in the game.
Heading to Goodison Park for the latest Premier League action, a goalless first half played itself out but on the hour mark Gaetan Bong was credited with an own goal and 16 minutes Cenk Tosun added a second to tie the points in their direction.
With Brighton also going a man down as an uncharacteristic lunge from Anthony Knockaert saw him see a straight red, the day pretty much went from bad to worse although a high point was Maty Ryan saving Wayne Rooney’s spotkick.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the defeat, Hughton explained.
‘The warning signs were there and we didn`t adapt to them well enough. I didn`t think we were great in the first half, but we stuck in there and restricted them to minimal chances. We had a good chance at half-time to clear the air and realise how we needed to improve in the second half – we did improve slightly but not significantly enough to go and win the game.’
Hughton went on to say that clearly we didn’t reach the standards we have in recent matches.
‘If we play at a level like that, we`ll find it really difficult to win Premier League games. We know what the levels are and we`ve reached those levels in this good run that we`ve been on. But we were well below that today – we knew the attacking threats they have and certainly the best team won.’
The gaffer went on to say that a disjointed performance did show up our lack of quality across the 90 minutes and we have to be better than that moving forward, so whether it was an off day or a wake up call, it has to be a lesson.
‘They`re a level-headed group of lads, but it`s about performance and levels. In the periods throughout the season where you don`t reach the levels you need to, you can get beat. We were playing against top opposition and a team who are very good at home and have great attacking options – so you have to be at it.’
Adding.
‘We got away with it in the first half, probably because they hadn’t raised their game to the levels that they did in the second half. We were spirited towards the end and tried to get back into the game, but the second goal really killed us.’
With Knockaert’s red card, he ended by saying he had no complaints with the decision.
‘I have no problems with that, it was a red card. It`s a team game and it will now see him miss three matches. We`re the ones that won`t benefit from that and he certainly won’t.’
