Newcastle manager Steve Bruce: "We found it very difficult. We knew Brighton would come and want to take the football and basically we couldn't get after it well enough. In the second half we changed a few things and if anyone was going to win the game I thought it would be us.
"The Achilles heel is that we have to take big chances when we get them.
"We couldn't wait to get them in at half-time. We didn't deal with Brighton who kept the ball very well and they made it a difficult evening for us. We got away with one."
Brighton manager Graham Potter: "I'm a bit frustrated. I thought our performance was really good. We had one cleared off the line and got into their box often.
"Andy Carroll came on and made things frantic at the end, but I'm delighted with the performance and felt we deserved three points.
"We need to maintain that and try and improve. We've been playing quite well. We're disappointed with the points tally and disappointed with the result today.
"The players have got a resilience, character and organisation to defend the box when they need to. We're lucky that we've got that foundation. They try their best every day, which away in the Premier League is not so easy to do."
After winning five consecutive home Premier League games between January and March, Newcastle have enjoyed only one win in their last six at St James' Park (W1 D2 L3).
Brighton are unbeaten in all five of their Premier League meetings with Newcastle (W2 D3), their joint-best record without defeat against an opponent in the competition (also five v West Ham).