Brighton sink sorry Saints to grab a lifeline

THEY took their chances and held on to what they had — what a fine time for Brighton to break the habits of a season. It’s been a hard old slog for Graham Potter, who has built a side that’s pretty on the eye but too often recently had the whiff of one destined for relegation. That might still be on the cards, but for now they have a renewed buffer of three points between them and the swamp, and the psychological tonic of knowing this was among the minority of matches where the result was equal to their performance. Primarily that is because they had three good chances and took two through Lewis Dunk and Leandro Tossard, and secondly because they pushed on after Che Adams cancelled out the first of them. Brighton have not been turning leads into victories — they have dropped 17 points from winning positions, a tally exceeded only by Southampton — but they got across the line here and how important that might become. Given Fulham’s moderate revival of late, a first win in six league games is timely. Potter said: ‘It’s nice to win. We have suffered recently with results. You can see the quality but we haven’t got enough points, so we have to keep fighting. ‘The reality is you can’t just create, you have to make the most of the chances with that bit of quality. We did today.’ For Ralph Hasenhuttl, this is becoming a crisis of sorts. Saints will surely be safe with 33 points and nine to play, but after the brilliance of their form in the first half of the season, their run of four points from the past 36 available is dreadful. Danny Ings’ absence to injury is hurting but how troubling to hear Hasenhuttl question their desire after this one. ‘Very disappointed today, especially with the second half,’ he said. ‘The opponent wanted it a bit more. I didn’t like the way we responded to the second goal, there was no energy.’ The fluctuation in Southampton’s results is perhaps the most alarming of any club in this bizarre campaign. Hasenhuttl attempted to rotate his way out of a rut by making five changes to the side beaten by Manchester City but there was no salvation in fresher legs, even if they did have the better of the early chances. Brighton’s initial threat had been limited but their goal was nice. It started with the winning of a corner, via a rotation of passes between Adam Lallana and Danny Welbeck before Fraser Forster tipped Neal Maupay’s shot over the bar. Pascal Gross found Dunk, with the help of some loose marking from Ryan Bertrand, and he headed home. It was Dunk’s tenth in the Premier League since he made his debut in the division in 2017 — no other centre-half has scored more in that time. Saints levelled when Adams volleyed home his third goal in three having gone 16 games without any, before Gross closed the first half with a one-on-one, from which Forster saved. Potter switched from a back four to his preferred three for the second half and Brighton immediately looked more dangerous. They went ahead shortly before the hour when Welbeck received a pass and laid off perfectly for Trossard. After one touch he drilled past Forster. Brighton might have expected a familiar retaliation at that stage but, short of a few appeals to the referee, Southampton offered very little.