Albion boss Graham Potter reflected on a disappointing start, but an overall decent performance from his side in the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool at The Amex.
Having gone 2-0 down in the opening eight minutes to strikes from Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson, the Seagulls got themselves back in the match with a fantastically well worked goal rounded off by Leandro Trossard just before half-time.
Dan Burn had a wonderful opportunity to make it 2-2 but fired wide in the second half, before Salah got his second of the evening when he cleverly converted at the near post from Andrew Robertson’s corner.
Albion can take a lot of heart from the performance. They often looking dangerous on the attack and gave centre-half pairing Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez a real headache at times.
Potter said, “We gave a good account of ourselves, especially after going 2-0 down in the manner we did. Liverpool really smelt blood because we gifted them a couple of goals, but we showed great personality to drag ourselves back into the game – we created some chances before we scored a really good goal.
“We put a lot into that game and there’s a lot of positives as well as things we need to learn as well which is normal, but I am pleased with a lot of what we did. We need to improve and that includes myself.”
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Potter took the blame for the way in which the hosts conceded twice early on, with Albion caught in possession both times.
“The way we play is my responsibility,” the head coach accepted.
“You’re going to get mistakes in football and I think our decision making can of course improve, but at the same time we wanted to be brave and play our game against the best – it’s a way to learn and improve your own game of football.
“Overall, the way we responded to that situation was really, really good. We had a good chance with Dan Burn at 2-1, so we’re in the game, we’re fighting, we’re pushing.
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“The calibre of player against you is of such a high quality that you feel stretched in some areas, but the boys gave everything and I am really happy with them.
“I thought what we were trying to do throughout the game was quite good.
Of course it doesn’t help when you give them a head-start, but overall we had some really good opportunities and scored a good goal.
“It was all personality from the players and credit to them because they got themselves back in the game when Liverpool were in the ascendancy, when they wanted to go and get more goals.
"I think lesser teams might have crumbled, we didn’t. But clearly we have to learn from the first seven minutes.”