Defender disappointed despite Man of the Match display
Paul Dixon told htafc.com that his own individual display, which earned him the Man of the Match award, was no consolation after Town fell to defeat against Brighton on Saturday afternoon.
“You don’t take any comfort in defeat. We came here today to do our jobs and two silly mistakes have cost us,” said Dixon.
“We have caused our own downfall. In the second half, when we got at them, they never threatened us. They had one chance when they caught us on the break, but we were the architects of our own downfall. In the first way we were particularly poor, but I thought we improved in the second half.
“The dressing room is disappointed, because the game was there for us. Two of our own mistakes have cost us the game. We lacked concentration for the first goal when they took a quick short corner and then Keith (Southern) got caught on the ball in the middle of the park and they broke on us for the second. We showed resilience and fought back in the second half, but just couldn’t earn a draw.”
Town’s late charge almost earned them a point after home debutant Simon Church had given them a lifeline with his first for the Club in the 90th minute.
“There have been a couple of those this season – the games against Blackburn and Nottingham Forest come to mind. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t quite get the second goal to earn us a draw today. I think there were a few decent penalty claims in the second half; Brighton's defenders were all over the back of Big Alan (Lee) on a number of occasions.”
The Scottish international continued: “We wouldn’t be in seventh position if we weren’t a good team. We have put in the performances this season, but our first half display today cost us. We will look at that, focus on it, and improve on it for our next match.”