Brighton gained revenge for last season’s play-off defeat at the hands of Wednesday with a deserved 2-1 win at Hillsborough today.
The Seagulls took the lead on 27 minutes when Sam Baldock lobbed over Keiren Westwood and the closest we came to a goal in the first period were efforts by Barry Bannan and Adam Reach and a Fernando Forestieri header which crept wide.
Westwood failed to appear for the second half, the keeper appearing to suffer a thigh injury when clearing the ball in the first period, and he was replaced by Cameron Dawson.
Wednesday’s slow build-up play was generally dealt with comfortably by Brighton, who looked the sharper and more energetic of the two sides, before we finally began to put the visitors under a period of pressure, culminating in Tom Lees’ 69th minute header being cleared off the line by Oliver Norwood.
However, just when it seemed we might salvage something from the afternoon, Brighton took advantage of slack Wednesday defending and Anthony Knockaert swept home a second goal from close range on 73 minutes.
Ross Wallace and Steven Fletcher both went close late on and Reach fired over from six yards before Gary Hooper eventually pulled a goal back when he fired home from eight yards deep into injury time … but by then the three points were well and truly on their way back to the south coast.
Defeat sees Wednesday drop to ninth spot, three points off the play-off places.