GARY O’Neil admitted to Cherries’ profligacy in front of goal in their 2-0 defeat to Brighton, sharing: “We missed some big chances.”

Cherries were downed by goals in either half from the Seagulls, Evan Ferguson’s inventive backheel opening scores before substitute Julio Enciso made sure of the result late on.

The hosts had opportunities of their own, most notably Hamed Traore poking wide one-on-one with Jason Steele and Dominic Solanke blasting over the bar from inside the box.

Discussing the game, O’Neil told the Daily Echo: “We missed some big chances. They converted one very difficult one in the first half. We missed some real good ones.

“Consequence of that is that obviously towards the end, you need to push because you're 1-0 down.

“Brighton are a good side when you open up spaces a little bit. So, we had a real good go at it I thought.

“There are consequences to being that aggressive in a game, because we were aggressive against a very good side.

“Consequences are that they're going to cut you open a couple of times and they're going to play through, but you should have a couple of regains and get yourself some real good looks at their goal.

“We did, we didn't manage to make the most of them. So, yeah, disappointed with that.”

O’Neil went on to point out the underlying numbers suggested Cherries were unlucky to draw a blank.

According to Fotmob, O’Neil’s charges had an expected goal tally (xG) of 1.92, whilst Brighton converted two goals off an expected total of 2.76, highlighting their clinical performance.

He continued: “As a whole, I thought the game was there for us, but we didn't manage to take some real good chances.

“I’ve taken an early look at some of the numbers and nearly two xG, or around two xG tonight, which I don't always look too much into.

“But to not score a goal when you have expected goals of two is rare. So, disappointed that we didn't find that last final action to get us back in the game.”