The question, or rather statement inviting a reply, almost never came.

The point, as Graham Potter faced the press on the ground floor of the new Anfield main stand, was almost never made.

It was one of those press conference moments when two reporters speak up at the same time.

TalkSPORT’s Graham Beecroft, one of the best known voices of Merseyside football for many years now, was one of them as he stood on the far right-hand side of the room.

One has to let the other go first. On this occasion, the reporter on the front row invited Beecroft to continue.

What he said - more statement than question – told you a lot about what the locals thought of the match they had just witnessed.

They were taken aback by the sights and sounds of that second half.

Beecroft said to Potter: “It’s a long time I think since the Anfield crowd have seen Liverpool hacking the ball away at the end as they were.

“They’ve not been under that sort of pressure against top European sides, here never mind Brighton….”

Potter replied: “I think that is what was disappointing.

“I think there was a lot of quality in our play and at times you could sense Anfield had to get behind the team.

“That is an indication of how we did and how well we played.

“Big credit to the players for that.

“It’s not easy because you know one error against these players you are in big trouble.

“But everyone could understand what we were trying to do.

“It was just that first 20 minutes, even though it wasn’t bad bad, we just didn’t have enough there to make the right decisions at the right time and that is the one regret.

“Over the course of 90 minutes I was very proud of the effort, very proud of what we tried to do.”

The Albion boss was asked why he maintained the same shape throughout the game, despite going 2-0 down.

He replied: “The goals didn’t come from open play.

“One is a free-kick, which we felt was a foul on Aaron Connolly leading up to that but then we didn’t deal with the free-kick and Virgil van Dijk is very good at those situations.

“And the second goal is a corner which again is an area we have to do better with.

“But in terms of how the game panned out and how we wanted to play it, there were enough signs there that we could do better.

“We just had to play a little bit better and believe in ourselves a little bit more.

“Sometimes a scoreline can make it easier for the players to play but we need to show that level at the start if you want to come here and get anything.

“As we can all see, it’s not easy.”

Potter praised Lewis Dunk’s quick thinking to put his side back into the contest from a free-kick.

He said: “It was a good finish, a good bit of clarity to make the right decision at the right time.

“That is probably what we lacked in the first 15 or 20 minutes.

“He could maybe have had another goal as well with a couple of chances he had.

“We attacked, we tried, it was a good game.

“It was a good game, I wanted it to carry on to be honest! But not to be.”