MATY RYAN says Albion were made to pay for a lack of ruthlessness in their 1-0 defeat to rivals Crystal Palace at the Amex.

Albion registered 24 attempts against Palace – their best tally in a Premier League game.

But only eight were on target and none of them were converted into goals.

Ryan watched from the other end as chances came and went before Jordan Ayew made the most of a rare Palace attack in the second half.

Ryan said: “It was probably the Achilles heel for us today, we weren’t clinical enough in the front third and we didn’t take our opportunities.

“When you do that you leave yourself vulnerable to the opposition going up the other end and scoring a goal and you run the risk of losing the game, which is what happened for us.”

The positive for Ryan was the amount of openings created.

He said: “It is more of a worry if the opportunities were not coming, I think there would be more an issue if that was the case.

“We definitely had the beating of them there, but just for whatever reason we weren’t able to put one away, or even two or three.”

The Seagulls have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last eight games and Ryan knows that must change too with every point so precious.

He said: “We need to stop conceding goals.

“If you don’t concede then at least you are only going to draw the game rather than lose the game.

“It has been a bit frustrating that we have only got five clean sheets to our name this season.

“There are always improvements that can be made in any match, so we go will go away, analyse then regroup and go again.”

Another worry is Albion have failed to come from behind and win a game at the Amex this season in the five matches they have conceded first.

The home fans stuck with the side but Ryan but knows the supporters can only do so much.

He said: “It can’t just be them and we have, obviously, got to do what we need to do on the pitch also.

“Together, whatever we achieve, we win together, lose together, stay up together. All those types of things - everything is with the fans.

“Hopefully we can switch the focus to the next achievement together, which is next week.”