Brighton & Hove Albion continue the close chase with Newcastle United this season.
Brighton defeated Birmingham, as expected, 3-1 with Glenn Murray stealing the spotlight. The home team moved two points ahead of the Magpiesthough they have played a match more.
Murray scored from Bruno’s cross as early as the second minute to reach his 20th tally this term. The guests City responded, frustrating Brighton’s effort for the rest of the half. The pressure was high but Brighton showed their superiority as they netted immediately after the break to calm things down.
TomerHemed chested the ball in before UweHunemeier completed the 3-0 rout with a shot in the 54th minute. The two goals were important for Brighton’s confidence after Lewis Dunk pulled out of the game with sickness as the excuse.
Newcastle are set to face fourth-placed Huddersfield in a cracker on Wednesday.
“It was certainly scrappy, the fact we got the early goal normally motivates a team to go on but then we had a difficult period where we rested on that one goal, and you can’t afford to do that against anybody. I was agitated in that first half, we needed to be more like ourselves.Fortunately we worked better in that second half and took our moments when we needed to do,” Chris Hughton said after the game.
Brighton have ten points above third-placed Reading but they have the relegated Premier League team to contend with for the Championship title.
Birmingham had the ball more times that the hosts but they had to make do with the 85th minute consolation from Che Adams. ManagerGianfranco Zola blamed the result on a “poor start to the second half.” They remain in 18th position.