Hughes angered by cup shock

Mark Hughes slated his players for lacking professionalism after billionaire club Manchester City were humiliated by hard-up Brighton in the Carling Cup.

City were sent home with their tails between their legs after the League One side came through 5-3 on penalties after a dramatic 2-2 draw on Wednesday night.

Hughes said: "We are disappointed because we had a strong enough team out there to have won this game and I thought we looked very comfortable in the second half."

He added: "But we missed chances when we should have been professional enough to have seen it through to the end after taking the lead.

"Once it goes to penalties it can go either away so we mustn't dwell on this result but you never want to go out of any competition.

"There is obviously a lot of focus on us at the moment but I don't know if I'm more embarrassed than angry about going out.

"At least we were able to give game-time to some players who needed it - and to be honest the need was pretty evident at times."

Hughes refused to blame the antiquated conditions at Withdean Stadium, a makeshift facility with temporary stands which Brighton rent for their home games in the long wait for a new stadium to be built at nearby Falmer.

Hughes said: "It's similar to several places I've been in Europe and the players should be able to cope with it."