PUBLISHED
23:43 18th December 2012
by Will Jago
Gus Poyet hopes the fightback from 2-0 down can install new belief in his side...
Gus Poyet is hopeful that tonight’s comeback to salvage a point could spark a turnaround in fortunes for his Albion side.
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The Seagulls were two goals down but rescued a point with minutes left on the clock, which the Albion boss believed could breathe belief.
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He told seagulls.co.uk, “Two home draws is bad for us but I hope that this is a turning point though. If we couldn’t score we would have gone away with nothing because we were out of the game but we got back into it.
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“If you look at where we were after 60 minute we should not have drawn that. I made the decision to play three centre-halves at the beginning at that didn’t work, so the first 30 minutes was all down to me.
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“We had to react to their second goal and we did that. It was a proper fight-back; there was desire, character and belief - there was only one way after that. We take the point because it was a terrific fight-back.
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“I knew that it would be hard but I like where we are at. We would always have to do well to beat Millwall but we had the chances.
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“They had three chances on goal and scored two of them but we hit the post a couple of times, missed the goal when it was practically on the line and I don’t know how that didn’t go in. There were more shouts for penalties too.
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“Macca [Mackail-Smith] had a great chance in the first half but didn’t score so perhaps we will go to Blackburn on Saturday and score our chances.”
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The Uruguayan remains confident that his side are very close to finding to right formula to break into the play-off position, but admitted that the January transfer window will be an important time in the season.
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“We need to do good business in January, which will mean bringing players in and possibly some going. We may take the step forward we are missing and if we do that we have a great chance to get into the top six.
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“That minimal difference does not mean it's cheap though, instead it’s very expensive. We will try and it we will probably have to sell some to bring players in because we don’t have a lot to spend in our budget. I like a certain number of players and we are already around that number.”
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Poyet also heaped praise on David Lopez who played his first 90 minutes in Albion colours and scored the late leveller from the penalty spot.
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“I think he was Man of the Match tonight, although I don’t want to be unfair to Kazenga [LuaLua] because he changed the game.
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“David Lopez was a different class. He played in every position and did not complain. He took the corners, free-kicks, he hit the post, he took responsibility with the penalty and I’m pleased for him because he was one of the players who I wanted to play but couldn’t.
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“I was being really unfair because I could not play him when he was waiting but he had his chance and he took it. I’m really pleased for him.”
Original article