'It was a red card' - Hughton believes Walker should have been sent off

Kyle Walker was only shown a yellow card after moving his head towards Alireza Jahanbakhsh - a decision Chris Hughton disagreed with.

Chris Hughton was disappointed Manchester City's Kyle Walker was not sent off in the first half of Saturday's FA Cup semi-final as Brighton and Hove Albion were beaten 1-0 at Wembley.

Gabriel Jesus scored after just four minutes, but the tie might have turned in Brighton's favour had Walker been shown a red card before the interval.

The England full-back was involved in a heated confrontation with Alireza Jahanbakhsh and appeared to move his head towards the Brighton forward. VAR looked at the incident but did not recommend that referee Anthony Taylor upgraded a yellow card to red.

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Having seen the replay, Hughton believed Walker should have been dismissed, suggesting other players have been sent off for similar incidents in the past.

"In my opinion, it was a red card," he told a news conference. "We ask players to be honest and Alireza doesn't make a big meal of it.

"If I look at the action, which I have done, there would have been numerous circumstances where that exact same action would have got somebody a red card. I think there was sufficient force in the action to warrant that."

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On the use of VAR in the semi-final, Hughton added: "I think we're at the stage now where everybody is pushing for it. I'm probably one that has been converted a little bit. I'm still not sure how far it's going to take us.

"I'm even more disappointed that this was with VAR. Everybody will have a different opinion and I'm only giving you my opinion - I've seen it on three or four occasions."

Besides the first-half controversy, though, Hughton was proud of a Brighton display that might have been rewarded with something more tangible than City's plaudits had Aymeric Laporte not brilliantly cleared from in front of his own goal line.


"I know [City] had half-chances with the quality they've got, but I'm struggling to think of a clear chance - I don't think that has happened to them many times this season," he said.

"Particularly after going behind so early in the game, I can't imagine that there were too many in the stadium that didn't think that a second and a third was coming.

"We regrouped and came into what I thought - for our level and for what we are - was a really good game. We had chances. The majority of them were from set plays, but we were forceful enough to get them."