Sunday 18 March 2018 19:53, UK
Chris Hughton felt Brighton had needed a Romelu Lukaku as they were left wanting 'in both boxes' in defeat to Manchester United.
The Seagulls had chances at Old Trafford but were dumped out of the quarter-finals by Lukaku and Nemanja Matic, whose goals in either half put United into the last four.
Despite that, Hughton was delighted with his players' performance, with his only criticism the quality of their finishing - having left top scorer Glenn Murray on the bench.
He told the club website: "I thought we were [well in the game], certainly as regards to the amount of shots we had and shots on target. We might not have had a lot of possession, but you expect that here.
"We were always a threat but needed to work the goalkeeper a little bit more. We needed to have that little bit more quality once getting into the final third.
"As regards to the overall performance of the team, I was delighted with that. But you know the game is won and lost at both ends.
"When you look at Lukaku's goal, it's what he does and he showed the quality to get on the end of the cross. We needed something like that, but we were always in the game and always a threat."
Albion had been poor during last weekend's 2-0 reverse at Everton and despite the familiar scoreline, were far better at Old Trafford against big-spending United.
"I wanted to see a response from the team because we were poor against Everton," Hughton added. "It was especially important considering the run we've been on - but we did that today.
"We knew how difficult it would be to get a result here, but after the disappointment of tonight, what will be more important for us is to take our recent form into our next games, which are huge games for us."
