Lewis Dunk was tugged down by Eric Dier in the penalty area
Saturday 22 September 2018 21:24, UK
Chris Hughton felt his side should have had a penalty as Brighton were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday.
At 1-0 to Spurs, Lewis Dunk was brought down in the penalty area by Eric Dier from a corner, but Chris Kavanagh waved away calls for spot kick.
Although Hughton had no issues with Spurs' penalty award in the first half for a handball on Glenn Murray, he felt his side were hard done by with the second-half decision.
"I've seen the [Spurs] penalty itself and I have no problems with that one. It was handball, but I haven't seen the actual contact before that.
"There's no doubt that the ball hit his hand, but we see that an awful lot, and on more occasions than not, they're not given as penalties. That was probably my frustration at the time.
"The other one is also a penalty [Dier pulling down Dunk], I have no doubts about that. He's on his way down and he's got a clear hold of Dunky's shirt
"Those are the balances that haven't gone in our favour. I have no problems with theirs, but we certainly should have had one as well."
After Spurs went 2-0 ahead through Harry Kane and Erik Lamela, Brighton scored too late to make a game of it and they have now not won in four games since seeing off Manchester United in August.
It might have been different had Anthony Knockaert scored when his side were 1-0 down but he tried to walk the ball in and his shot was easily saved by Paulo Gazzaniga. Boss Hughton knew his side had to score at that moment, but was still encouraged.
"His best chance was at 1-0 and if he scores that and it's 1-1 then it's a different result," he said. "I thought we got in some good positions. We were always in it. Their second goal showed the quality they have.
"We were up against a very good Tottenham team, but I thought we limited them to minimal chances and probably when they scored the penalty, that was the best chance they had.
"That gave them a lift but our reaction was very good and I thought that we would get opportunities. I thought we had as many good chances as they did."
