Brighton leapfrogged Sunderland on goal difference after their win at the Stadium of Light

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler said he felt his side deserved their win at the Stadium of Light even if luck was on their side with Yankuba Minteh's winning goal.

Minteh scored from a mishit cross early in the second half, just minutes after Chris Rigg had seen a goal correctly ruled out for offside. Hurzeler saw his side leapfrog the Black Cats on goal difference in the Premier League table with the win, and praised the resilience of his side in getting over the line.

"I think we started the game really well, we created chances, we created a lot of danger, we controlled the game," Hurzeler said.

"In the second half, the first minutes we struggled, I think there was set-piece after set-piece, cross after cross, but overall we defended it well and then our goal came out of nowhere, there was a little bit of luck involved, but I think it really helped us in this phase to overcome it, and then afterwards again we controlled the game quite well, we defended good as a team. Everyone stuck together, we showed a really good teamwork, we showed really good togetherness, we overcame the difficult phases by finding solutions together as a team, no matter if it was tactical or regarding mindset, but I think that was exactly what we expected today from us and I think we deserve to win this game in the end."

The win underlined Brighton's recent uptick in form, though the head coach does not believe there has been a major change in performance.

"If I'm quite honest, I think that we didn't play better football than we played the weeks before when we didn't get the results," he said.

"It's just now that we've managed the key moments of the game better and in certain moments we might be a little bit more lucky than we were before because I think overall the performances in the last weeks are really good, we're always there to compete for the win, we're always there to bring our principles on the pitch and today is another prime example of what it means to manage the game well, to manage the key moments, good to stick together and therefore I'm pleased with the result today. It's another very important three points for us and now we have to keep going, we have to keep understanding why we are in this place, what we needed to invest to get to this place and keep doing these things in the next games, play every game like it's in the file and then we'll see what will be the result."

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Brighton boss delivers verdict on Yankuba Minteh red card claim

Hurzeler said he didn't feel goalscorer Minteh deserved to be sent off after an altercation with Luke O'Nien after which he was shown a yellow card, but admitted he had brought him off to protect him after committing another foul moments later.

"I think he showed today danger on the left side and when he scored he came from the right side and we know that he always can do unpredictable things, he has a quality not a lot of players have and I'm really happy for him because he overcame really difficult phases he went through, he understood what it means to come back on the pitch, he was waiting for his chance, today he got his chance and I think he used it in a really positive way," he said.

"I think it's important to understand that it's a very emotional place here, the crowd is loud, energetic and therefore we all want to stay calm, but sometimes it's so emotional that players react on it and I think he didn't do a dramatic action, it was a yellow card and of course afterwards we needed to protect him."

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