Chris Hughton admitted Albion are making life tough for themselves in their quest to secure safety.

The Seagulls boss was unhappy with the early goal which sent them to a 1-0 defeat at Rotherham today.

And he admitted they did not create enough good chances to improve their dismal goalscoring record away from the Amex.

Albion had plenty of possession and played with more urgency in the second half.

But Matt Derbyshire’s eighth-minute strike ultimately proved decisive.

Hughton said: “We certainly gave it a good go in that second half period and I thought we threatened a lot.

“The difficulty we have got at the moment is we are struggling to score goals.

“If you are struggling to score goals you have got to start a game better than we did.

“We gave a really poor defensive goal away.

“You know a team who are desperate to get the points will press you and make it more difficult – which they did.

“We had to be better in that first half.

“In the second half I don’t think we could have done any more tactically to try and turn it around.

“We ended up with four forward players on the pitch and we threatened.

“We didn’t get the really good opportunities.

“Beram (Kayal)’s opportunity when he was through was perhaps our best.

“But we need to start better in games and we’ve got to be more productive in that final third.

“Otherwise we will continue to put more pressure on ourselves.”