West Ham v Brighton & Hove Albion: The key points from Chris Hughton's post-match reaction

Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton said the overriding feeling was disappointment after West Ham fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at the London Stadium this evening, reports James Wootton.
Chris Hughton. Picture by PW Sporting PhotographyChris Hughton. Picture by PW Sporting Photography
Chris Hughton. Picture by PW Sporting Photography

Here are the key points from Hughton's post-match press conference.

Frustrated with the result?

“Yes, and I suppose a similar story, we scored two goals reasonably quickly and so have they. Hugely disappointed because there won’t be too many opportunities particularly away from home.

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"They showed after a difficult start what a good side they are. I thought our first half was very good so yes, the overriding feeling is one of disappointment.”

Ball out of play for second goal?

"Certainly there’s a doubt whether it’s gone over or not, someone told me who’s seen another angle that they felt it was just in but of course there is some doubt.

"I’m probably more disappointed that we allowed that to become a goal for them. We’re aware of Antonio’s strengths and Arnautovic’s strengths and probably in a game where we defended really well, one of the very few times we didn’t defend so well is where they’ve got their goals from.”

Looking up or down the table

“Still very much trying to get to the magic figure of whatever it is and making sure we can keep as big a gap between ourselves and the bottom three as possible. There are certainly pluses about our season. In the three games we’ve had, albeit two of them at home, against tough opposition to get five points from nine is a good points tally for us.”

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“No (he doesn’t do that in training) hence that’s why it’s his first goal of the season, he isn’t one that scores a lot of goals, one thing we would like to demand of our midfield is contribute more goals. Games are generally harder for us to score in this division than it is for the top teams so we’re never going to be big goal scorers but you want that contribution so really pleased for him and hopefully we’ll see more from him.”

Set-piece threat

“It’s circumstance. Yes, we do set plays before every game, but we did that last season as well and had a very poor record, certainly conceding. Whether it’s just the continuation of the amount of work from last season to this season.”

Shane Duffy's goal threat

“That’s what you want, we’ve got two big centre halves that have got good movement in the box and that always gives them a chance, and that’s what you want but it’s also about the delivery. A lot of the teams that score a lot of goals from set plays have very good deliveries. Really pleased with that and of course we really needed it today.”

Bernardo's injury

“His hamstring just tightened up a little bit. My feeling is that he’s played a lot of games in a short period of time so I’m hoping it’s just tightness or a bit of fatigue.”

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