Brighton 1 Southampton 2

On the Rust we are encouraged to highlight what we believe are the crucial issues not necessarily those that the media do.

Thus for me the crucial issue is that Brighton have now gone 10 games without a home win. We play good football and in Tariq Lamptey and Ben White have two youngsters with outstanding potential.

Danny Welbeck leads the line well, Yves Bissouma works hard in midfield and Lewis Dunk is a rock in defence. For all that not one home win.

We started confidently against our south coast rivals. James Ward Prowse – with arm aloft when the ball struck it – conceded a penalty which Pascal Gross converted.

The Seagulls continued to press in front of 2,000 fans but could not add to the score.

It was Southampton who equalised when their tall central defender Jannik Vestergaard got a meaty head on Ward Prowse’s corner.

Southampton had the better of the second half which was determined by a VAR ruling which will dominate the headlines today.

Kyle Walker-Peters was brought down outside the box by Solly March but momentum took the Southampton player over the box.

Ref Coote initially gave a free kick outside the box but his decision was overruled by the VAT panel and a penalty was given which Danny Ings converted.

One should always remember that last week at Aston Villa a late challenge on Danny Welbeck resulted in a dubious penalty occasioned by VAR  and this time it was Villa’s manager Dean Smith who was protesting and Brighton the fortunate benficiary of a 2-1 away win