1994 AFCON Winner Ekoku Blames Brighton's Poor Game Management For Loss To Man Utd

1994 Africa Cup of Nations-winning striker Efan Ekoku has blamed Brighton & Hove's poor game management for their 3-2 loss to Manchester United in an English Premier League clash at the American Express Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Odion Ighalo's run of 24 games of making United's matchday squad ended today as he was not considered for this one by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

Manchester United have their first three points on the board thanks to a late penalty converted by Bruno Fernandes with the last kick of the game after Solly March had equalised for the Seagulls in the fifth minute of second half stoppage time.

Neal Maupay's rush of blood to the head cost Brighton & Hove a point after he gifted Manchester United a penalty.

Speaking during commentary on the Premier League world feed, Ekoku said : "I said towards the end of the first half, you've got the see the game out, you've just scored a goal and you've got to make sure defensively you do exactly what is required to make sure that you get to halftime or you get to full time managing the game.

"Once again the Brighton players have not been able to do that and we talk about how well they played and how they bossed Manchester United, they hit the woodwork so many times, they have been the better side really.

"Manchester United were lucky to have got the penalty at the end but in truth once again it has been sloppy defensive errors that appear to have cost Brighton at least a point here today."

Maupay scored with a Panenka to open the scoring in the 40th minute but the Red Devils were level three minutes later as Lewis Dunk scored a own goal while defending a free-kick, before Marcus Rashford made it 2-1 ten minutes into the second half.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel