Brighton boss Chris Hughton was left to reflect on a first Sky Bet Championship away defeat of the season at Rotherham - the latest poor result in a faltering campaign.
The Seagulls' winless run stretched to eight in all competitions as they were soundly beaten by the struggling Millers who won it thanks to goals from Danny Ward and Matt Derbyshire at New York Stadium.
It was a seventh Championship game without a win and stretched their goalscoring drought to well over 500 minutes.
Hughton was proud to take an unbeaten record on the road into the new year, but admitted his side deserved nothing from the game in South Yorkshire.
"I am proud of it, particularly away from home," he said. "At this minute I'm thinking about our performance today, we didn't really deserve to get anything from it.
"In the second half we gave ourselves opportunities to get back in the game. I think we were well off it in the first half, they got a rhythm.
"At the minute, most defensive mistakes we are getting punished for and you can't win football games if you don't score and we are struggling at that."
Brighton's season is in danger of petering out as they looked a far cry from the side that were not beaten until December 19.
And Hughton said his side's luck had turned.
"Sometimes it's about momentum, sometimes it's about margins," he said. "Arguably there's stuff we're not getting away with at the minute that we were in our good run. We are getting punished for mistakes.
"They were better than us Rotherham in most departments.
"The lack of goals is a big worry at the minute, because it's impossible to win football matches unless you are scoring goals.
"Things aren't going for us at the minute. At the moment it's not going our way and we are the only ones who can turn it around."
The win was Rotherham's third on the bounce on home soil and moved them three points clear of the relegation zone after all the rest of the bottom six lost.
Neil Redfearn is masterminding Rotherham's survival bid and he was delighted with the performance.
"We deserved it, I don't think anybody could doubt that," he said.
"From the first minute we played some good football, we were always on the front foot, I thought that we played at the right tempo, we pressed them at the right times.
"Brighton played their part, but I thought the difference was the front two.
"I thought the front two were magnificent and they were a real threat for 90 minutes.
"The fact that you have got that energy up front helps you defend from the front.
"It's a long season, we haven't got to look too far ahead, we have got to keep chipping away.
"Over the last month and a half we have been playing well, the results have been okay."
Source: PA-WIRE
