Marvin Johnson’s late strike was the difference at the Riverside Stadium in a fairly uneventful match. The defensive resolve of his side pleased Hughton, with only the late lapse in concentration allowing Johnson to score, but he wants The Reds to show more in the attacking third.
Speaking after the game, he said: “It was a difficult afternoon. It is the type of opposition that play a direct style and they do it well.
“There are two ways to get something form the game, one is to be resilient right until the end. They had a couple of free kicks on the edge of the box and defensively I thought we were as comfortable as we could be. It is the one lapse of concentration towards the end that has cost us.
“If you can’t do that, you have to score goals and if you are not scoring and taking the lead, you are putting pressure on yourself as a team.”
He added: “We have to take it on the chin. You are always looking at your team and where they can do better. We needed to be better against a team that presses and are direct.
“You have to battle against that or look for moments of quality to break them down. At the moment we are not doing enough of that to take the lead. If we do, then the game changes but we never allowed ourselves to be in that position.
“By far the best game since I became manager for chances was the Rotherham game, so we have shown that we can get in those positions and create chances.
“It could be a confidence thing and you can get the lucky breaks, but overall defensively we have been compact as a team and I am happy with what I have seen with that. We have got to show more in front of goal and show more of a threat than what we have been.”