Neil Redfearn was reluctant to make any excuses for his side’s 2-0 defeat away to Brighton on Tuesday night.

United’s three-game winning run came to an abrupt halt at the Amex Stadium as goals in either half from Sam Baldock and Inigo Calderon secured three points for the hosts.

Redfearn admitted his side were far from their best against the Seagulls as they looked to continue the momentum built up by recent form.

“I didn’t think it was anywhere near to what we are or what we’re about,” said Redfearn.

“We made bad decisions at times – we got caught running with the ball quite a few times in midfield.

“I didn’t think we defended well enough, I thought we got disjointed at the back and we didn’t get around Morison quick enough or support him well enough.

“It looked a jaded performance. We’ve had a fantastic run and I think sometimes you don’t perhaps realise how much this run has taken out of us.

“I don’t want to make excuses. We were second best tonight and Brighton were well worth the three points – they played really well.”

Asked why he felt the performance was below par, Redfearn replied: “It might have been a bit of tiredness.

“We came in on the back of a run of games in a short period of time.

“We’ve drastically cut the squad – it’s down to 22 players now – and there’s a little bit of an imbalance there.

“We’ve got a lot of strikers and not much cover in midfield, which was obviously apparent on the bench.

“But, again, I don’t want to make excuses for the performance or the decision making out there at times.

“I can’t be too downhearted. We came into this game as the form team in the division.

“We’d been on a fantastic run – five wins out of the last six games – there’s nobody on a better run than us at the moment.

“But tonight’s been disappointing. We’ve got to put it to bed, pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday.”