Cheltenham boss Keith Downing swallowed his disappointment at being hit by Doug Loft's late leveller for Albion and admitted: "We could have been behind at the break."

Downing believed his struggling side were naive in the closing stages as they allowed the Seagulls a chance to stage their game-saving attack.

But he took heart from their improved second-half effort.

He said: "We like to be up tempo, passionate, aggressive. In the first half I didn't see that.

"Brighton dictated in the first half and came off deserving to be leading, but we got away with it "In the second half we got a bit more quality on the ball."

Downing felt his side should have gone on to win after sorting their act out at the break.

He added: "There were strong words at half-time and we came back out fired up.

"We competed, we had a go and we had a lot of possession in the opposition half.

"Unfortunately we lost possession there and it was a break from 70 yards which brought their goal "The manner of it was very disappointing."