Hughton on a high as Brighton leapfrog Mags
Brighton boss Chris Hughton admitted his side’s return to the top of the Sky Bet Championship with a dramatic 2-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday gave him a “wonderful feeling.”
Not only have the Seagulls leapfrogged Newcastle, but they have now opened up a nine-point lead over thirdplaced Leeds.
Brighton, ahead thanks to Anthony Knockaert’s 34thminute opener, were pegged back when central defender Lewis Dunk put through his own goal just before the interval.
Top scorer Glenn Murray received a straight red card for handball in an incident that led to Wednesday being awarded a 65th-minute penalty.
But Fernando Forestieri saw his spot-kick brilliantly saved by David Stockdale, and Brighton grabbed maximum points when French winger Knockaert converted a Seb Pocognoli cross five minutes from time.
Hughton felt the victory was reward for the “tremendous character” they displayed and said: “It is always a wonderful feeling when you win a game like that.
“I am delighted because we were playing against a very good side. To win the match having gone down to 10 men shows tremendous character.
“We were up against a very good team and if you beat teams around you it is an added bonus.”
Hughton was delighted that his men bounced back quickly from last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Preston, and, when asked to comment on how it feels to be top, he replied: “At this minute we are really delighted with where we are.
“The gap between second and third is for us the most important one.”
Hughton said he did not have a problem with the handball decision which led to Murray’s sending off.
He added:” There was no doubt the ball struck Glenn’s hand.”
Wednesday finished with nine players after substitute Steven Fletcher, the ex-Sunderland striker, and defender Sam Hutchinson were red carded in the closing stages.
Owls head coach Carlos Carvalhal, whose side remain in sixth place, admitted his players allowed their emotions to run away with them.
“The players lost emotional control and we must control that kind of behaviour,” he said.
“Of course there is frustration because we were playing so well and we deserved to be winning the game, but these things happen in every team in the world and we must work to prevent them in the future.
“The thing we must control is the emotion of the players. If it was still 10 verses 11 with some time still remaining then maybe we could have achieved something.”
Carvalhal felt his men wasted a glorious opportunity to win. He said: “We had a big chance in the game with the penalty where we could have killed the match.
“But we didn’t score and Brighton had a rock-solid defence.”