Alex Neil apologised to the Norwich City fans for the 'worst defeat of his managerial career' in a 5-0 Championship crushing at Brighton.

City surrendered in worrying fashion on the south-coast with Glenn Murray grabbing a hat-trick for Chris Hughton's promotion hopefuls. Michael McGovern gifted Murray his first when he failed to clear a back pass and the floodgates opened after the interval.

'It is my worst defeat as a manager. I can only apologise to all the fans who travelled in huge numbers because we have let them down,' said an angry Neil. 'You don't need me to tell you what was said in the dressing room. The players should be embarrassed by that. We need to go out and play better. Simple as that. The game up until the second goal was like any tight game in the Championship with two sides near the top. From then onwards we have to act like professionals and we didn't.

'Giving Brighton the first goal is never a good thing because the way they play they are quite comfortable to sit in and let the other team have possession. We were the makers of our own downfall with the first goal. If we get the first one, it applies pressure to them to try and break us down. That was really disappointing. Apart from the opportunity we handed them in the first few minutes we defended well for the rest of the half.

'The second goal we get done on a counter and the third one is self-inflicted. We are man for man and get done on the corner. From that point onwards we didn't compete anywhere near how we needed and that is the difficult thing to comprehend.'