Manager Chris Hughton has given his full thoughts following the scoreless draw with Cardiff City last weekend and he knew Brighton could have few complaints with the final scoreline.
Travelling to the Cardiff City Stadium for the game against Neil Warnock’s side, Brighton had the far better of the game in terms of chances on target and overall control with the possession percentage, but we also ended the game a man down following Gaetan Bong’s double yellow and red card and when speaking to the Official Site in his post game media meet and greet, on balance, Hughton knew he couldn’t argue overly about the point taken on the day.
‘It was very frustrating, but we knew it was going to be a tough game, and we came up against a team that set up with a 4-5-1 formation, which shows respect to us as a team in good form. But we had a lot of possession and the onus was on us to break the deadlock. We defended well as a team, but we needed to do better with the half chances, and then the game would`ve opened up.’
With Brighton having the ball in the back of the net in the second half through Glenn Murray, that was ruled out for an infringement and added to the red card to Bong, Hughton also commented he couldn’t argue with the referee on both decisions either.
‘On the foul, I think yes looking at it again. It`s one that if the referee doesn`t get a clear view of it, he allows it. You`ve got Shane Duffy who jumped very well, but he`s probably impeded him so I have no complaints about that. I can`t fault the referee on that either (red card). I`ll have to look at the first booking again, but I have no problems with the second challenge when he`s already on a yellow card. But that`s what the squad is for and we`re going to miss players through injury or suspensions, and that`s when you have to use it.’
There was disappointment of course, with Newcastle United’s defeat, had we taken all three points Brighton could’ve topped the Championship table, but Hughton remained philosophical knowing there’s plenty of games left yet.
‘It`s certainly not the end of the world, but it is an opportunity missed – particularly in the second half; but you`ve got to give credit to Cardiff. They had a gameplan to very much stop us playing and the way they play will give a lot of teams problems. I would`ve seen it as an opportunity to go top, but a draw is not a bad result.’
