Character not enough – Brighton boss Hughton

Brighton and Hove Albion failed to win for the seventh successive Premier League game on Tuesday and Chris Hughton has demanded better quality from his players.

Hughton watched on as the Seagulls were beaten 2-1 by Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, the Foxes winning in front of new manager Brendan Rodgers.

Defeat leaves Brighton three points above the relegation zone heading into their final 11 games of the season, and after only taking two points from a possible 21 Hughton is understandably worried.

The manager remains happy with the character being shown by his squad, but he knows they need to do more if they are to pull away from the relegation battle.

“It’s only us who can turn things around,” the Brighton boss told BBC Match of the Day. “We can’t keep speaking about character after every game we need to make sure we get results. 

“It doesn’t matter how the results come sometimes you need a bit of fortune, resilience and grit.

“We weren’t going to go through the season without having a difficult period and it’s still in our hands. We have a good opportunity at home to Huddersfield [Town] on Saturday to start picking up points.”

A narrow defeat…#BHAFC pic.twitter.com/8zYQ8Sa9rJ

— Brighton & Hove Albion  (@OfficialBHAFC) February 26, 2019

On the match, Hughton added: “It was an even game and we had as many chances as they did – certainly in terms of possession and shots. But in the moments that mattered they put them away and we didn’t.

“It was too many chances missed and we’ve come up against another goalkeeper who’s made very good saves. 

“But if we’re not putting away the chances we have to be good in our own box and more resilient than we have been. 

“Our level of performance is OK but if we’re not scoring we have to make sure we aren’t conceding.”