Manager Chris Hughton has admitted a poor start from Brighton ultimately cost the side the chance to take something from Leicester City yesterday.
Heading to the King Power Stadium for the game, Brighton were one nil down one minute into the game, and Hughton knew the timing of their second on the day hadn’t helped us either as we tried to get back into the match.
As well as lessons to learn though, there were also positives as he spoke to the Official Site as he met with the media following the match.
Having lost two nil, Hughton explained.
‘We didn`t help ourselves today on the back of a very tough game against Manchester City and the work we`ve done all week. We needed to feel ourselves into the game. They were better than us today, but never really carved us open. The longer I felt we could stay in the game, then we might have that opportunity. But the timing of the two goals were very detrimental to our play, especially the first one.’
Having not been carved open, that was a positive but the manner of their goals was disappointing, but in admitting Leicester deserved the win, he also credited how their play was something we needed to learn from and get back to doing ourselves like we did last season in the Championship.
‘We`ve got to keep possession better. We are a side that can get into shape and make it hard for the opposition, as we did last week. If I look at the difference between the two teams, it shows their quality, their know-how and where they`ve been for the last few seasons. They`re not a side that really opened us up; they didn`t have great chances. But in the areas where they needed to keep possession, they were that little bit sharper and that`s what we need to learn.’
With Shinji Okazaki opening the scoring, Harry Maguire doubled their advantage from a corner and Hughton also called for improvements on set pieces.
‘We can`t be the type of team that concedes goals from set-plays. We know it`s going to be a tough season, we know we are going to need everything that we can get, but certainly at 1-0, we`re still in the game. We need to make sure that our responsibility on set-plays is better. That can keep us in the game. It`s a learning curve for us and we`ve had two tough games; one against a very big team at home, and against a very good side away from home, but we`ll certainly need to be better in the next game.’
