Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings admitted his side lacked intensity and enthusiasm during their lacklustre 0-0 draw against Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made a number of crucial saves for Villa – more than he had in any Premier League match previously – including a superb outstretched palm to deny Dan Burn’s header and ensure the visitors left with a clean sheet and a point.

Dean Smith’s men managed only four shots during the match, of which just one was on target, with Mings admitting his side’s shortcomings to VillaTV.

“(I’m) disappointed with the performance,” the 27-year-old said.

“I think we lacked an intensity and an enthusiasm that usually is a staple of our game.

“To win any game in the Premier League you have to work hard, and I don’t think we had that.

“As a defender, to come away with a clean sheet and a draw when you don’t look like winning a game has to be a positive.

“It has to be something that we’re working on – which is being hard to beat. And that was positive.

“But I don’t think we were quite at it here, for some reason.”

The draw leaves Brighton in 15th place and 11 points clear of Fulham, who occupy the third relegation spot.

Brighton have kept five clean sheets in six league matches, including their draw with Villa, with defender Joel Veltman believing the Seagulls have trailed their opponents in just two matches this season.

“We had it at the start of the season where we created chances but couldn’t put them away,” the former Ajax defender told the club website.

“I would say there’s only been two games this season where we haven’t been better than our opponent.

“If you look at the games against Liverpool and Tottenham we only scored one goal, but our work off the ball has been really good in the last few weeks, and as a result we have kept clean sheets.

“We created more chances against Villa and they will be happier with the point than us.”