Was the Bournemouth defeat 'harsh'?

[DavidinSouthampton]

Where does it say it was harsh on Brighton?

Eddie Howe is right it was a tough match because Bournemouth didn't play that well. Their final ball was poor and they could have stretched our back four more than they did. Let us be brutally honest though, for pretty much the whole game (as the Guardian reporter notes) Cook and Elphick were commanding and mostly in control. The Bournemouth keeper was rarely troubled even if we created the odd flashing cross or shooting chance.

Tight matches are won often by mistakes or who has the most composure. As I said before, Carayol ran through Bournemouth in the second half (reminiscent of Vicente v Derby!) but Bournemouth didn't panic and shut him out when he went for his shot. Bournemouth run through, we dive into tackles, with Dunk showing no composure or defenders guile and brings him down in an ideal free kick position. That was completely our own doing to be honest. Bournemouth deserved the lead because they remained composed at the back.

The second was as embarrassing a piece of defending as I think I've seen at the Amex. Wilson didn't really have to perform any magic tricks to win his bit of space to score. It was as schoolboy defending as we committed against Norwich.

We're at home, the other teams come with a plan to be tight as both Norwich and Bournemouth have done. It has seriously flattered us to believe we have been hard done by in either of those games. Over the 180 mins we've not really created a single clear cut chance. We've had half chances, and good moments, but we've not put either side under any serious pressure.

Seriously, anyone thinking we've performed okay over these two games is watching football in a different world to me. We've been slow to counter, predictable in our build up play, and lacking any kind of goal scoring threat. We've not pressed hard enough, not worked hard enough to put teams under pressure. Hughton really does have a huge task ahead of him.

he doesn't actually use the word "harsh", but he does say "Brighton were unlucky to leave empty-handed here." And the whole tone of the article is a lot more complimentary to some of the Brighton players than some on this site have been here and elsewhere.

Somewhere else he does also say that Brighton will survive if we show the spirit we showed here.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

A 1-1 draw would have been a fair reflection on the night. Can't believe the penalty wasn't given when Ritchie controlled the ball with his hand which allowed Bournemouth to clear it.

 

[Marshy]

As usual we were no where near as bad as the moaners made out, probably the better side for the first hour, just don't look like scoring

 

[GreersElbow]

Losing to a top team, well that happens & that's why they are top.

What is a disgrace is the way we have not gone for wins against teams that everybody else beats easiliy, or results against mid table teams that are out of form. CH does not set us out to win.

No, he doesn't. CH sets teams out to draw. Because CH sees a loophole in the structure of the league which means 1 point p/g is enough to secure automatic promotion..

Come of it. We weren't winning under Hyypia, we're not winning under Hughton. We have however, had some big FT scores, 2-3, 2x 4-3 and 1 3-4. Really set us up to draw then, didn't he?