Albion youth coach Dean Wilkins was delighted, despite the under-19s being knocked out of the Football League Youth Alliance Cup.

The young Seagulls lost 2-1 to Luton at Sussex University, scuppering their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals, but Wilkins was pleased with his players' response after disappointing performances at Portsmouth and Wycombe.

Wilkins said: "Luton were clearly bigger than us so they were always going to be dangerous on crosses and that was the case with their second goal. But I can take losing a game if the performance is decent and there were a lot of plusses from that game.

Even though we got beat, I was delighted because the commitment and quality was back to what it should be."

Dan Beck put Albion ahead after only a minute, intercepting a clearance by the Hatters, goalkeeper before skilfully beating a defender and lobbing the stranded keeper from 35 yards.

Luton hit back with goals after 18 and 33 minutes and Albion keeper Chris May produced an excellent save to prevent a third 17 minutes from time.