Chris Hughton urges Brighton and Hove Albion to cut off set-piece threat at source

They will do their cause no harm if they can cut out the sort of set-piece situations which have been their downfall in recent games.

Manager Chris Hughton has spoken quite freely about his side’s concession of goals from deadball situations in their recent tougher time.

Some have been preventable when the ball has been delivered, such as Paul Huntington’s gentle header to open the scoring at Preston after the Seagulls had failed to take advantage of two similar situations at the other end.

The penalty concession which let Lincoln back into the FA Cup fourth-round tie and the close range finish by Luke Chambers to hand Ipswich an early leg-up last Tuesday also fall into that category.

Maybe one or two have been unstoppable, like Michael Kightly’s free-kick into the top corner for Burton.

And then there was Brentford’s second goal in the recent 3-3 draw at Griffin Park, when Albion did well to divert Jota’s free-kick inches over the bar but then left Harlee Dean to head home the resulting corner.

They were not totally convincing in a big let-off against Ipswich in the second half, when Chambers hit the post.

Albion concede at a free-kick against Burton

So, while there is room for improvement in how such deliveries are dealt with, there is also a case for not allowing such situations to arise in the first place.

That is something Albion have addressed in the run-up to today’s Barnsley trip.

Hughton told The Argus: “If I’m looking at set-plays where we have conceded, you can only concede them once you have given free-kicks away.

“Probably we have been a bit guilty of giving away free-kicks in areas where they can hurt us.

“It is the sort of thing that happens in a game and all you can do is make the players aware of it.

“At the same time, you don’t want to take the competitive edge away from the team or players.

“But it is the same as scoring set-plays. Sometimes you go through a period where, with every delivery, you think you have got a really good chance. Then it dries up for a while.”

Albion could do with the current slightly turbulent season calming down a little – though they have been through worse.

Has the tide turned a little for now? There was a time when all seemed to be going right. When dramatic wins were followed by news of helpful results from elsewhere.

This Harlee Dean header from a corner at Brentford followed on immediately from a free-kick

It was easy to think on Tuesday night that, not so long ago, Glenn Murray’s last-gasp shot against Ipswich might have hit the inside of the post and flown in.

That somebody from Rotherham might have got a foot in the way of Tommy Smith’s unlikely injury-time winner for Huddersfield as it found its way through a crowd of players.

Suddenly Huddersfield are the ones with the wind in their sails while Albion are having to dig in a bit.

Hughton did not hide from the fact his side are going through their most testing period of the season when he took questions from the media.

But, amid talk about things not going to plan, he was also keen to stress that there is still plenty right.

That included the midweek draw with Ipswich which helped the chasing pack edge just a bit closer.

He said: “In a game that became reasonably open, I thought we had the best chances.

“We were reliant on David Stockdale to make a couple of saves.

“But I thought, if there was a team that was going to win, it would be us rather than Ipswich.

“We mustn’t lose sight of the fact we are a good team.

“We need to try and produce that as often as we can. We have been conceding a few more goals than we had at other times this season.

“But maybe also being that bit more clinical in front of goal, which is what we needed on Tuesday.”

Asked if he experienced any major hiccups along the way when he managed Newcastle to the second-tier title by an 11-point margin in 2009-10, Hughton said: “I can’t remember but there would have been tough times in that.

"We are talking about a tougher time now but we are probably on the back of a decent enough performance against Ipswich.

“There is not too much wrong.”