Chris Hughton has revealed he was going to substitute Anthony Knockaert before the Frenchman's winner for Albion at Crystal Palace.

The manager stuck to his guns and replaced Knockaert with Solly March immediately after his wonder strike, which clinched a 2-1 victory.

Hughton, asked if he was going to take Knockaert off beforehand, said: "Yes. These are the decisions you make. Probably once he scored there was more reason to take him off. Solly's a different type of player and at that stage I knew we would probably have to do more defending.

"So yes I was going to take him off before the goal and I didn't change my mind."

Hughton believes ref Craig Pawson was right to book Knockaert, rather than showing him a red card, just 28 seconds into the game for a challenge on Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic, who converted their second half equaliser from the spot.

Hughton said: "The Anthony Knockaert foul I was very close to.

"You had two players that equally went for the ball. My first impression was that neither was going to get booked.

"And then I think what was deemed is that Anthony's foot was raised slightly. A red card for me absoultely no.

"The way the game is at the moment I thought the right decision was a yellow card."

Hughton had no complaints about Palace's penalty for a foul by Davy Propper on Andros Townsend but felt Albion could have been awarded one themselves in the first half when Shane Duffy was wrestled by Scott Dann from a free-kick.

"There were two penalty appeals," Hughton said. "I'm going on what my staff said and we should have had a penalty. Duffy was pulled back in the box. I think theirs was a penalty."