Jurgen Locadia's strike inflicted a seventh defeat of the season
Saturday 29 December 2018 20:58, UK
Marco Silva admitted his Everton side lacked intensity as they were beaten 1-0 by Brighton at the AMEX Stadium.
Jurgen Locadia's second goal in as many games earned Brighton a first win since the start of the month as Chris Hughton's side moved to within two points of their opponents.
Everton were denied a point after David Button tipped Richarlison's shot onto the post before Kurt Zouma's header struck the crossbar late on.
Silva said: "It was a tough match, a difficult match for both teams. It wasn't a good game, personally in my opinion. There were a lot of challenges. We didn't start the match as well as we would've liked, and they started faster than us.
"They controlled the first 10 minutes, but afterwards we balanced it a bit more and we finished the first half well. The last 15 minutes we created more problems for them.
"We achieved not clear chances, but some good moments to score in the first half. In the second half, we didn't start well again, but if you look at the match, it's clear we didn't deserve the defeat."
The result leaves Everton in 10th place as their quest for successive away victories in the Premier League continues.
Not since September 2016 have they won twice on the bounce away from home, but after beating Burnley 5-1 on Boxing Day, their inconsistency was on display once more as Brighton kept a first clean sheet in 10 games.
There was a slice of good fortune about Locadia's winner, with Pascal Gross' corner inadvertently being deflected into the path of the Dutchman off the thigh of Andre Gomes.
Silva added: "We were unlucky with the deflection off Andre and it gave the chance to Locadia. We had control for the rest of the game, but that's football. They scored one goal and we didn't score with our chances.
"It was a tough match but not with great intensity. It wasn't our best performance with the ball, but in the last 15 minutes, we were more ourselves, and we know they are strong with the set pieces.
"We had plenty of the ball, but we didn't create big chances."
