David Moyes concedes West Ham were off the pace in Brighton defeat

David Moyes says West Ham failed to match Brighton's level in their 3-1 defeat at the Amex Stadium.

The Hammers fell behind inside seven minutes on the south coast and, despite Javier Hernandez equalising for the visitors, they were left behind in the second half by the clinical Seagulls.

Jose Izquierdo and Pascal Gross both scored stunning goals to compound a week of misery for the Hammers, and Moyes held his hands up after the match.

"We didn't play well," Moyes told Sky Sports. "I didn't think we played well all but we certainly didn't play well in the second half.

"The (Izquierdo) goal is a worldie. I think we should have dealt with the ball up better, I don't know if the goalkeeper could have got it before the corner.

"We dealt with the corner but the boy scores a really good goal. So that changes the outlook whether we were playing well or not - at the time it was 1-1.

"If I knew why we weren't playing well I would solve it right away. But I think we never got to the pitch of the game.

"Brighton were right at it from that start, they started much better than us. We grew into the game, had a few chances before half-time but we never got to the level of the game all day.

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"We were missing a few key players but we would never use that as an excuse because that's part of football and it gives other people opportunities to show what they can do."

The defeat was only the second West Ham have endured in their last 11 games under Moyes, who has lifted the Hammers from their early-season slump and on their way to safety.

Moyes accepts that there will be times when his side lose, but has challenged them to bounce back at home to Watford next time out.

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"If I look at the record over the last seven or eight weeks you'll see we've lost a game for the first time in five or six weeks," he added.

"There was no way we were going to go through without losing games but we've got to make sure we don't lose too many.

"We've got to move on and be ready for the next one and hopefully pick up three points. We want to get back on it because we've had a good run of games and moved ourselves away from the bottom.

"But everything is tightening up again and we need to make sure we pick up our wins at home if we don't get them away from home."

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