[Sir Megson]

I don't think we need to be so doom and gloom just yet, after all one training session together before yesterdays game.  Give them a couple of games and if it is still no better, that is the time to lay in.  I am going to give them that before I start moaning (again )

I'd second that as well Salop. 

Any mentions of sacking the manager after one loss this season are downright laughable. Once the team got announced yesterday everyone in the concourse I spoke to thought it was a decent enough line up to beat Brighton, and on here reading back through the thread only Beefy pointed out before kick off that he wasn't happy Gibbs hadn't been included. 

The truth is all in the starting XI yesterday were picked on merit and recent past performances and then collectively went on to have one of the worst performances I've seen for a while. The only exception being Barry to be honest, hasn't put a foot wrong so far from what I've seen.

I don't like putting individual players into the spotlight, but I felt very sorry for Nyom as he had an absolute stinker and it will surely knock his confidence after what was a decent start of the season for him (assist for Rodriguez vs Stoke and good performances elsewhere). The misread of the flight of the ball cost us the first goal, missing an absolutely basic header like that is a tough one to understand. He also really struggled to adjust his bodyshape yesterday when receiving the ball out on the left flank and it was the most awkward I've seen him play in that respect since he first signed. 

This really slowed down our typical counter attacking style and we had the pace of Rodriguez and Phillips to utilize but I felt Dawson and Nyom both struggled to help move the ball up through to pitch quickly enough for this. Brighton were very narrow and the flanks were where we needed to hurt them.

For the second goal the complete lack of closing down of the player was shocking, and Foster didn't particularly cover himself in glory to be honest - it had the look of a soft goal down low in the corner that a keeper like Joe Hart often lets into his net on a regular basis. By this point on the third goal Evans also got into the mix on misreading the ball and was nowhere near either the ball or player to prevent the header. He also spent more time arguing with the rest of the back line yesterday than getting involved in the play from what I recall. Certainly not his greatest performance in an Albion shirt.

Rondon, Rodriguez and Phillips also really had games to forget, with Rondon having his worst effort since signing for us imo. I had to wipe my eyes and check it wasn't Giles Barnes out there at certain points of the game.

It's all well and good picking apart a selection in hindsight, but I don't think anyone would have predicted those players to put in such a poor performance - judging by most who do the prediction league I don't think anyone on here did predict it! As much as we didn't get our counter attack going yesterday I'm not going to take anything away from Brighton. They clearly targeted the game as one they could win and did a great job of making us look bad. I think it would be unfair to them to just make it out to be a win for them just because we were crap, when they created their chances they took them, and that's what we need to be doing against West Ham next weekend!

COYB!