CHRIS HUGHTON was delighted to secure a place in the Capital One Cup second round and was pleased with Glen Rea, who made his first-team debut for the club.
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He said, “The message before the game was that we wanted to go through. A lot of the teams that played last night would have used their squad in the best way possible, but you still want to put out a strong side, which I thought we did, and overall we showed a desire to go through.
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“It was a great day and a tough experience for Glen, coming up against two players that are used to the ball going up to the front and winning headers.
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“There were times when he got his timing a little bit wrong on the headers and he probably needs to gauge that a bit better, but overall I thought he did well - particularly on one occasion where a lad ran off the other side of Gordon [Greer] and he has had to cover very well."
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The Albion boss was impressed by Niki Maenpaa’s save late in the game to keep the score level at 0-0, prior to Kazenga LuaLua's winner.
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“It was a very good save, but I expected him to get there. We certainly shouldn’t have allowed the shot from the edge of the box, but it still needed a good save.
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“That was arguably the only good goalscoring opportunity they had and it was that type of game, because we didn’t create many chances ourselves.”
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He told southendunited.co.uk, “We showed them too much respect early on.
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“When it showed 30 minutes on the clock we started playing. In the second half it was almost one-way traffic.
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“The only thing that was missing was in the final third – putting the ball in the net. Myles Weston had the chance of the night and the 'keeper saved it.
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“I'm disappointed. A cup run would have been great and it would have put a marker down saying we've beaten a Championship side. Brighton have gone through though and good luck to them.
“When you get the opportunities, you need to score them and then kill teams off. Noel [Hunt] did well and his partnership with Joe Pigott gave me food for thought.
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“If we can put the ball in the net in this system we'll be okay.
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“To come away from the game with nothing is bitterly disappointing. I'm disappointed for the players but we move on to Walsall on Saturday.”
[h=3]ALBION V BLACKBURN ROVERS***
[/h]SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V HULL CITY***
[/h]SATURDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V ROTHERHAM UNITED**
[/h]TUESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
Original article