Roy Hodgson reacts to Lewis Dunk red card and makes honest admission about Brighton's performance

Albion skipper Dunk was sent off in injury time during today's M23 derby for a two-footed challenge on Gary Cahill.

"It was a bad challenge which was correctly punished," Hodgson said. "The referee can't do more than that.

"I don't know Lewis well but I'd be surprised if he did mean it. He held his hands up.

"It was his determination, wanting to force the ball into the goal. I'm 100 per cent sure he wasn't thinking this was his chance to injure somebody."

Albion dominated for large periods of the game against Palace but found themselves behind on the 19th minute after a Wilfred Zaha penalty, dubiously awarded against Tariq Lamptey. The young full-back was adjudged to have pulled down Michy Batshuayi but replays showed the striker went down under minimal contact.

Hodgson said: "The penalty was not one of those really stupid ones, that I've frowned upon recently, where the ball has been smashed against somebody's hand and there's nothing they can do about it.

"The referee was close to the action and gave the foul.

"I think the VAR decision against Batshuayi [offside goal in the second half] was correct but it was very close. VAR couldn't easily correct those decisions.

"I have no qualms about it being disallowed."

Brighton snatched a late equaliser thanks to a deflected strike from substitute Alexis Mac Allister and Hodgson admitted he was left 'bitterly disappointed' that his team couldn't hold on for three points.

He added: "It was a really hard working defensively display.

"It was certainly keenly contested. Both teams fought hard.

"We were so close to winning the game, I would have liked to have thought our defensive work was good enough to see us through.

"We weren't robbed because, in the second half, Brighton asked a lot of questions of our defence.

"It took quite a big deflection to give them the goal I'm pretty sure they say they will have deserved."

Hodgson said he knew Brighton could be dangerous centrally 'or by getting the ball wide and scoring from crosses'.

"That's what we defended well against," he said. "We didn't stop them passing out from the back.

"I do think Brighton are a good team. I didn't need this game to prove that I was right.

"We knew Brighton would have a lot of the ball as they are a possession based team.

"They had the most possession but games are decided on who scored the most goals. We were a few minutes away from getting the three points."

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