Solly March said Albion made life tough for themselves against Manchester City.

But he was proud of the way they fought back in the second period.

Albion went down 4-1 to the champions as March returned to the starting XI.

He said: “A frustrating first half-hour. We weren’t even too bad, I don’t think, but we lost the ball in some dangerous positions and the quality they have, they looked like scoring every time we lost it.

“I think we have got to be careful where we lose the ball and it just shows the quality they have really.

“Every time we lost it, they had five options going forward and seemed to be ahead of us, wherever that was.

“I think in the second half we put in a performance and gave it a good go.”

Alexis Mac Allister eventually rewarded the hosts’ second-half improvement by converting a penalty.

BRIGHTON 1 MANCHESTER CITY 4: HOW IT HAPPENED 

March said: “I think the first 35 minutes of that second half we were the better team.

“We were putting pressure on them and getting in half decent positions.

“Maybe if we got a goal a bit earlier we could have put on a bit more pressure in the last ten, 15 minutes.

“But I think we ran put of steam in the last ten minutes and that was why they got their fourth goal.

“We created a few half-chances but one of those needs to go in against a team of this quality.

“It wasn’t to be.”