Wycombe Wanderers manager Matt Bloomfield has admitted he was ‘disappointed’ in the three goals his side conceded in the recent victory over the Brighton & Hove Albion U21s.

The Chairboys smashed the young Seagulls 5-3 in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night, with striker Bez Lubala bagging four goals.

This includes securing a 23-minute first-half hat-trick, which is the first of his career.

However, two penalties from Harry Howell and a tap-in from Marcus Ifill gave Brighton some hope in the entertaining encounter in South Bucks.

The win means Wanderers need to beat Crawley Town in the final group match of the competition in November to progress.

Bloomfield said: “The second half became a bit disjointed as we had people playing in slightly different positions.

“We put Declan Skura in the midfield and Jason McCarthy came on as full-back and he eventually went as a centre back.

“We made these changes to protect a few of the boys ahead of the weekend [against Cambridge].

“I’m not pleased that we conceded three goals, but, we got that all-important win as we want to progress out of the group.”

Wanderers dominated the contest at Adams Park by registering 17 shots compared to Brighton’s five, but the visitors managed to get four on target which resulted in three goals.

Bloomfield hopes that ‘a lot of learning’ will come out of the win, as he believes Wycombe are far from the finished product.

He continued: “I am disappointed with the three goals.

“Of course, I want us to be entertaining so our fans look forward coming to see us , but I don’t want to be conceding three.

“We need to have a balance.

“Their [second] goal was a bit too easy so there is plenty of things to learn.

“We’ve had a few wins recently but we’re still a team in progress.

"We’ve had a big turnover in players, both in arrivals and departures, so we’re still learning about the group.

“There is a lot of learning and we want to keep improving.

“We’re far from the finished product.”

Wanderers were quick out of the traps as they forced Brighton into several errors early doors, which ultimately played a huge role in their performance. 

Speaking on the tactics, Bloomfield added: "We looked through the footage from their game against Crawley and they went with a man-to-man press, but we felt in terms of keeping with our principles, we wanted to be solid with our mid-block and didn’t give them any easy passes out.

"This forced key moments which we capitalised on.

"I want to win and get out of the group – we also have a competitive squad and it’s important to give everyone as many minutes as possible.

"We wanted to win to put it back in our hands, so when we play Crawley, it’s in our hands."

The match against Crawley is on November 12 at Adams Park.