Albion's manager was satisfied with a point today.
Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton admitted his side were slightly below par in today's 2-2 draw with Reading, and believes the final scoreline was a fair result.
Albion overturned John Swift’s opener thanks to goals from Sam Baldock and Anthony Knockaert, but Paul McShane earned the Royals a point, which Hughton felt was an accurate reflection of the game.He said, “We weren’t at our best today; we managed to get 2-1 up very early in the second half and probably on the balance of play, I can’t say we deserved that.
“But we’ve got players in the team that can score goals, although we needed to hold onto that lead for a lot longer to give ourselves a chance of winning the game.
“We come away from here with a performance that probably wasn’t one of our better ones, but we still got something from the game.
“I thought they [Reading] were good at times and we were playing away from home after having a midweek game. Sometimes that affects you, sometimes it doesn’t.
“We were a little bit flatter in our play today on the back of a really good performance [against Rotherham] and sometimes it’s difficult to reach those levels again.
“We’ve got enough in the team to get us goals and having taken the lead, we’re disappointed with the way we conceded, but I can’t be too disappointed with the result.”
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The Seagulls boss explained the reasons behind reshuffling his central midfielders, with Steve Sidwell and Beram Kayal in the starting line-up at the expense of Oliver Norwood and Dale Stephens, who continued to build up his match fitness back at the training ground.“We manoeuvred the team around a bit; we’re going through a heavy period of midweek, then Saturday games and we’ve got a lot of competition in those areas.
“My intention with Beram and Siddy was that they played in the first two games and we won the first two games.
“I decided to make a change in midweek, so my thinking was always to bring them back for this game.
“He [Dale] has missed a good chunk of pre-season; he was involved in three of those games, but didn’t play for a full 90 minutes in that period.
“He missed the first game of the season too and the midweek cup game. We felt that he would gain more from a couple of good days’ training yesterday and today so he’s back firing for midweek and next Saturday.”
Albion were dealt a blow late in the game when Liam Rosenior was forced off injured following Yann Kermorgant’s challenge and Hughton says the full-back will be assessed early next week.
“He’s sore at the moment. I can’t say it was intentional because I know the lad, but it was a wreckless challenge. We’ll have to see how it settles down in the next couple of days.”
Original article
Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton admitted his side were slightly below par in today's 2-2 draw with Reading, and believes the final scoreline was a fair result.
Albion overturned John Swift’s opener thanks to goals from Sam Baldock and Anthony Knockaert, but Paul McShane earned the Royals a point, which Hughton felt was an accurate reflection of the game.He said, “We weren’t at our best today; we managed to get 2-1 up very early in the second half and probably on the balance of play, I can’t say we deserved that.
“But we’ve got players in the team that can score goals, although we needed to hold onto that lead for a lot longer to give ourselves a chance of winning the game.
“We come away from here with a performance that probably wasn’t one of our better ones, but we still got something from the game.
“I thought they [Reading] were good at times and we were playing away from home after having a midweek game. Sometimes that affects you, sometimes it doesn’t.
“We were a little bit flatter in our play today on the back of a really good performance [against Rotherham] and sometimes it’s difficult to reach those levels again.
“We’ve got enough in the team to get us goals and having taken the lead, we’re disappointed with the way we conceded, but I can’t be too disappointed with the result.”
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The Seagulls boss explained the reasons behind reshuffling his central midfielders, with Steve Sidwell and Beram Kayal in the starting line-up at the expense of Oliver Norwood and Dale Stephens, who continued to build up his match fitness back at the training ground.“We manoeuvred the team around a bit; we’re going through a heavy period of midweek, then Saturday games and we’ve got a lot of competition in those areas.
“My intention with Beram and Siddy was that they played in the first two games and we won the first two games.
“I decided to make a change in midweek, so my thinking was always to bring them back for this game.
“He [Dale] has missed a good chunk of pre-season; he was involved in three of those games, but didn’t play for a full 90 minutes in that period.
“He missed the first game of the season too and the midweek cup game. We felt that he would gain more from a couple of good days’ training yesterday and today so he’s back firing for midweek and next Saturday.”
Albion were dealt a blow late in the game when Liam Rosenior was forced off injured following Yann Kermorgant’s challenge and Hughton says the full-back will be assessed early next week.
“He’s sore at the moment. I can’t say it was intentional because I know the lad, but it was a wreckless challenge. We’ll have to see how it settles down in the next couple of days.”
Original article