Saturday 10 February 2018 18:42, UK
Brighton manager Chris Hughton said that justice was done after Matt Ryan's last-minute penalty save earned his side a 1-1 draw with Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
Referee Robert Madley decided Brighton midfielder Dale Stephens had pulled back Jese Rodriguez in the box, although there appeared to be minimal contact between the two.
Luckily for the visitors Ryan dived full length to his right to keep out Charlie Adam's spot kick as the two teams shared the spoils, with Hughton claiming a draw was the right result.
"At the time I thought it was soft, but I was not sure and presumed I would come in here and see something different," he said.
"I still think it is incredibly soft, there are two players grappling each other and if anything Dale is almost pushing him off him.
"The lad goes down very, very easily and probably we feel a little bit of justice done with the save, which was a super save. And of course Lewis Dunk with some brilliant defending from that."
As a result, Brighton - who are now unbeaten in three successive league games for the first time since November - remain three points above Stoke in the drop zone.
And Hughton praised his players' second-half resilience - Stoke went with four in attack after half-time - after the visitors had had the better of the first period.
"We conceded a goal to a very good player in Shaqiri who has that type of quality on his left foot," he said.
"But I thought we were very good in that first half, it was very difficult though to sustain that for 90 minutes.
"But over 90 minutes, and even in that second half, I thought we had the better of the chances, we knew we were going to be under pressure at times, which we were, but we defended really well.
"But I do not think there is anybody who watched that game that would think we deserved anything less than a point.
"Testament to us as a team and a back four who were very resilient in what they do. And in [Eric Maxim] Choupo-Moting and [Xherdan] Shaqiri, they have wonderful players who can come in off the flanks. And when you are bringing on [Sadio] Berahino, then you know it is going to be a tough second half.
"I thought we coped with things really well today and had to defend well."
