Roy Hogdson has lamented the decision to award Brighton a penalty during Crystal Palace's 3-1 defeat to the Seagulls on Tuesday evening.
Palace were undone by three first half goals from Glenn Murray, Leon Balogun and Florin Andone and, despite having a man advantage for much of the game after Shane Duffy's red card, the Eagles were only able to claw one goal back through Luka Milivojevic's second half spot kick.
Brighton's opening goal came after a controversial penalty decision went against Palace and Hodgson claimed that the decision ended up influencing the outcome of the game.
"All first goals are decisive. Anyone who has seen the replay of the penalty will have seen what I have seen so there is no point commenting.
"[The penalty] wasn't the crucial factor. The second goal was the really decisive moment. It's disappointing to concede from the corner and the third goal gave us a mountain to climb.
Hodgson was left particularly frustrated by side's inability to make the most of their numerical advantage, but he insisted that his players still gave it their all.
"It's not rocket science. We knew we would have a lot of the ball, but you can't force them to not get lots of men behind the ball.
"We got one goal and one or two little opportunities. I can't demand more from the players, who gave it their best shot and kept going.
"Every defeat is a setback. We played well for two games, we didn't play well today and we lost. Every game is a new story. Today we weren't able to react."
Source : 90min