Hughton: We Didn’t Kill Game Off

Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton admitted his team paid the price for not making the most of their one-man advantage against Leicester City, as the Seagulls were unable to find a second goal and conceded late on.

Glenn Murray opened the scoring before James Maddison’s first-half sending off, but Jamie Vardy’s 79th-minute penalty levelled the game, and Hughton believes it was an opportunity missed for his team.

He said, “We had a good start and were good in that first-half period against 11 men. I thought we had ample opportunities to increase our lead and got into some really good areas.

“The longer the game goes on against a team of their quality with the pace they’ve got — despite being down to ten men — they were going to be a threat on the counter attack.

“We had some really good opportunities in the final third to increase our lead, which would have made life easier for ourselves. When you’re playing against ten men, you’ve got to make it count.

“It’s a poor penalty that we conceded and it’s a really good opportunity missed. You’ve got to be able to kill the game off, but we weren’t able to do that.”

Albion also experienced playing with ten men before the international break, and Hughton assessed Leicester’s change in playing style and believes his team actually performed better without the one-man advantage.

“We were in a similar position against Cardiff and played against a side that, probably even when they scored at the end, didn’t have a clear-cut chance in the period of time we were down to ten men.

“It’s normal for a team to play in a different way when they’re down to ten men. They’ve got pace in the side and they can break from that.

“The onus has to be on us to kill the game off and get the second goal. But our performance was probably better against 11 than it was against ten.”