Neal Maupay makes worrying social media hate claim after Sheffield United loss

Brighton's best chances fell to Maupay who was twice denied by fine saves from home goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale The French striker also missed a golden opportunity to claim a point late on when his close range effort from Ali Jahanbakhsh's cross somehow flew over the bar.

Maupay, 24, has previously spoken out about the abuse he and his teammates suffer on social media and fully expects to receive more after a 1-0 loss leaves Brighton seven points above the drop with five matches to play.

The Frenchman's comments arrived the same day the Premier League, English Football League and Women's Super League clubs announced they will join forces and boycott social media platforms for four days in an effort to combat abuse and discrimination, starting April 30.

"I think it is very good because I have spoken about this before," said Maupay, who is Albion's leading scorer with eight goals this campaign. "We get a lot of abuse online and this is not normal we need to fight it and this is a good way to do it.

"Especially after a game like tonight I know we will get a lot of hate, I will, so it is good that we are in this in together.

"It is getting worse. People are crossing the lines too many times too often so we need to keep fighting it. I hope everyone understands that players and athletes, we are all human.

"We have friends, we have family and we are just doing our jobs and trying to do our best. We are being judged, everyone is watching our games but we cannot control everything."

Brighton were below par in the first half and fell behind to David McGoldrick’s 19th minute strike. Albion improved after the break and thought they levelled through Jakub Moder but his effort was correctly ruled offside by VAR.

Graham Potter's team continued to throw everything at Sheffield United but could not find a way through. Of his close range miss, Maupay added: "We had some chances, especially me.

"I could have scored one or two goals but sometimes it does not work. W gave everything tonight. We did not play our best football and it is sad when you don't score, I didn't and we didn't so we lost and we have five games to go now.

"The cross was a bit behind me so I just tried to get a contact on it and I put it over the bar and that is on me because I didn't score.

"Tonight we lost and we tried our best. But we are going home to see the family.

"Every loss is a missed opportunity but especially tonight. We could have won the game but if you don't put that ball in the net it's hard to win the game."