Dean Smith has accused Albion of targeting Jack Grealish.

The Aston Villa boss said his main man was “kicked from pillar to post” in the 2-1 defeat.

Tariq Lamptey was shown a second yellow card after a clash with the Villa playmaker.

Seven fouls were awarded for challenges on Grealish, the first of them by Lamptey after just 30 seconds of the contest.

Albion felt the last of the game, by Lamptey, was not a foul, let alone a yellow card.

But Villa argued there were offences which were not spotted by referee Michael Oliver.

Smith said: “I definitely felt that Brighton tried to stop him, but he still created chances and made a brilliant one for Ollie Watkins and he won a lot of free kicks in good areas.

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“He got kicked from pillar to post but he just gets on with it. I still believe we create good chances even if he is marked out of the game a bit and we could have scored a lot of goals today, but that’s part of it.

“Jack Grealish was targeted, he will always be targeted and that hasn’t stopped, and I haven’t seen any different, since the day I walked in this building.”