BRIGHTON had presented a reasoned argument before the kick-off in defence of having spent more than £250,000 on agents’ commissions in the past six months. For an impecunious club like theirs, they stated, money spent on securing players on loan saved them having to fork out on high transfer fees. Nonetheless Brighton manager Mark McGhee admitted that he had been offered, and had turned down, a “bung” when in charge of Wolves.

Having been told in no uncertain terms by Charlie Oatway, their captain who will be missing for the rest of the season, that nothing less than hyper-charged performances will suffice if they are to avoid relegation, Brighton performed initially as they had when defeating Leeds in the corresponding fixture last season. They had sufficient chances in the opening 15 minutes to win the match. Dean Hammond headed against a post; Richard Carpenter slid a shot just past.

When Brighton went ahead after 10 minutes, it was no less than they deserved. A low cross from Alexandre Frutos, whose control was to the fore throughout this opening period, was neatly touched in with the outside of his right boot by Paul Reid.

Leeds were without Dan Harding, the former Brighton left-back, but able to leave Rob Hulse, scorer of two goals in their last two matches, on the substitute’s bench. Their strength here was generally apparent in their surges through the inside-right channel, and chiefly from Robbie Blake, who had a drive cleared off the goal line before he scored. His penalty, three minutes before the interval, came when Eddie Lewis was upended by Reid in an unnecessarily clumsy manner. Blake struck his spot kick in off Michael Kuipers’ right hand post. They had one further chance in this opening first half: Paul Butler placed a free header well wide of goal.

There were scant openings in the second half. The decisive goal came after 79 minutes when Reid, who went off immediately afterwards, picked out Gary Hart with a sweeping cross from the right wing. This was the first time he had scored this season, in part because he has spent virtually all of it in midfield.

“We can take a lot of heart from moving out of the bottom three in the table although I know we have only just clawed our way out,” said McGhee. “ We are in the market for forwards but Gary Hart has shown that he can have another two years in the game.

“I have said many times this season that we are not very far from being a very good team. We are very close to making what we hope will be signings of a quality that will improve our staff, but the limitations the club is under means we are facing a constant battle.”

STAR MAN: Paul Reid (Brighton)

Player ratings: Brighton: Kuipers 6, El-Abd 6, McShane 6, Butters 6, Lynch 6, Reid 8 (Robinson 81, 5), Carpenter 6, Hammond 6, Frutos 7, Carole 7, Hart 7

Leeds: Sullivan 6, Kelly 6, Kilgallon 6, Butler 6, Crainey 7, Blake (Healy 78, 5), Derry 7, Miller 5 (Hulse 69, 6), Lewis 6 (Pugh 82, 5), Douglas 6, Cresswell 6

Scorers: Brighton: Reid 9, Hart 80

Leeds: Blake 38 (pen)

Referee: A D’Urso

Attendance: 7,415

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