Seagulls deserved victory – Hughton

Sky Bet Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion raised the curtain on the Football League season in style with a1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest thanks to Kazenga Lualua’s well-taken goal.

Former Newcastle, Birmingham and Norwich boss Hughton described LuaLua as a “winner” and felt his team were good for all three points.

The Seagulls, hoping to improve on their narrow escape from Championship relegation last season, just edged an opening period in which both sides struck the woodwork. You want to see that from your wide players.

Will Forest get a good result in their next game?

“I am happy with the performance in general”.

Hemed headed straight at De Vries from a Bruno cross and Beram Kayal hit the post from 20 yards – while for Forest Dexter Blackstock flashed a header wide from Ward’s right-wing delivery.

Seagulls legend Bobby Zamora, who re-signed for the club this week, wasn t fit enough to feature, but the former Tottenham and West Ham striker received a warm welcome from the 24,623 crowd when he strolled onto the pitch before kick-off.

His compatriot Hemed so almost put Hughton’s men ahead in stoppage time, denied by a brilliant flying stop from De Vries who had earlier tipped Dale Stephen’s header over.

Forest’s German midfielder Robert Tesche was forced off injured before the break after a challenge by Kayal, and the Israel midfielder was soon booked for a lunge at Lansbury.

Freedman did not condemn the challenge but felt that Brighton were over-physical when Forest were counter-attacking, as they were often stopped by fouls. It’s the last thing we need right now but it’ll give opportunities to others. After that our response was fantastic. A long throw-in into the area wasn’t dealt with by the hosts and a goalmouth scramble ensued, but Dunk managed to get in front of the strikers effort to keep their lead.