Sky Bet Championship: Brighton boss Sami Hyypia blames players after 3-2 defeat at Brentford

Brighton boss Sami Hyypia blamed the lack of a clinical edge and "wild west" defending for his side's 3-2 defeat at Brentford.

But he insisted his side would bounce back quickly and dismissed suggestions that a leaky defence in the last three outings was a concern going into Tuesday's clash with Ipswich.

It was end to end stuff at Griffin Park with both sides playing neat, flowing football at a blistering first half tempo that eventually saw the pace slow in the final 10 minutes.

But that meant nothing to Hyypia, who said: "It's no consolation that it was an entertaining game because we didn't get anything from it. In the first half we were not convincing defensively and we made it too easy for Brentford to get behind us and score.

"When we have the ball we can play football and concentrate on what we do well, but the key is to score goals and on too many occasions were off target going forward and not tight enough at the back."

Hyypia was forced to take off Lewis Dunk as a precaution after he picked up an early yellow card for hauling down Andre Gray with just 10 minutes gone, the big defender looking vulnerable to the pace of the Brentford striker.

He said: "I got the feeling that someone had had a word with the referee at half time and was concerned that if he made another challenge he didn't like, he would be off. It was also affecting his approaches to tackles.

"Football is a simple game and you have to score more goals and limit the other side to fewer chances. You can't go into games with the attitude that we play like open doors or the wild, wild west and have confidence that we'll get one more than opposition."

Moses Odubajo put the Londoners on track for their first three home points of the season after 19 minutes, slamming home an angled drive after latching on to an incisive Alan Judge through ball.

They doubled their lead just after the half hour when top scorer Gray steered home Jake Bidwell's left wing cross from close range.

The Seagulls hit back on 39 minutes when Gordon Greer volleyed home at the far post from Danny Holla's corner which was flicked on at the near post by Lewis Dunk.

The end to end thriller tipped the Bees way once again after the break when Jonathan Douglas powered home Bidwell's left wing cross as the Brighton defence stood still.

But Sami Hyypia's side refused to lie down and ensured a nail-biting finale when Holla sidestepped his man 25 yards out and curled a beauty into the top corner past David Button's outstretched hand.

Bees boss Mark Warburton said: "Three points was very important. This was a big game against a club who were in the play offs last season with good, strong technical players. From 15 to 40 minutes we were as good as we have been this season.

"I'd have preferred us to start faster - we talk about that a lot - but perhaps we couldn't because they were very good. The fact is we weathered it and scored on the break before playing some fantastic football."

The Brentford boss believes this win ensured his players are now confident of standing toe to toe with any side in the division, and added: "The great thing is they are still learning and will keep on learning, both the young and older lads.

"It could have been very different if they had gone down to 10 with the foul on Andre. It's difficult when that happens especially as I have Tony Craig sitting on the bench fighting for his shirt back after being sent off for something far less."