Hughton: 'Decisions favoured Liverpool'
The Brighton boss felt that the league leaders got the rub of the green at the AMEX stadium on Saturday, which heavily contributed to the 'Seagulls' narrow defeat.
A penalty converted by Mohamed Salah was enough to see Liverpool extend their lead at the top of the table back to ten points, with rivals City to host Wolves on Monday. Yet while Brighton boss Hughton has no debate over the awarding of the spot kick, he did state the belief that many other decisions in the match went against his side.
In his post-match press conference, Hughton explained: "There's no intent and referees have a hard job, but sometimes you feel things go your way and sometimes you feel some of the decisions don't go your way. I felt today it was one of those days. No malice or anything towards the referee but I thought the bulk of decisions favoured Liverpool today."
While Brighton did not muster even one shot on target in the game, the 'Seagulls' did defend resolutely, and manage to limit their guests to long-range efforts for the majority of the game. Boss Hughton therefore felt that his side deserved to take a share of the spoils from the match, stating: "On the balance of play I thought we deserved something. They are such a good side and the opportunities they had were when we were trying to get back into the game and put bodies forward and made the game a bit more open. I thought we restricted them to minimal chances."
Hughton concluded: "Pascal Gross' chance [a shot in the second half] was probably as good as any of their chances. We were always in the game and discipline was really good from the team, which it has to be because they can open you up. In the latter part of the game we went for it a bit and showed a real intent to get back on level terms and I thought for the feel of the game that we deserved something."