Brighton 2-1 Fulham: Seagulls put pressure on top five in Champions League race as Joao Pedro scores 98TH-MINUTE penalty to secure late victory

• e-mail

Brighton had never beaten Fulham in the Premier League before Saturday’s dramatic 2-1 win, words that seem to be a challenge more than anything to this wonderful, upwardly-mobile club in recent years. But if you are going to break a record, you may as well do it with a 98th-minute penalty.

In truth it was a game that struggled to burst into life, before Raul Jimenez’s 10th league goal of the season broke the deadlock, but Jan Paul van Hecke headed the Seagulls back level six minutes later in a frantic first half finale.

Brighton then dominated a scrappy second half, yet with every passing second seemed destined to fall short of the killer blow in this European race, until a clumsy challenge from Harrison Reed on Joao Pedro with seconds left on the clock.

Sam Barrott blew for a penalty, and after an agonising delay Pedro, the coolest and calmest man in East Sussex, dashed Fulham’s hopes to send Brighton sixth. Cue pandemonium. Cue devastation.

‘A difficult one to take,’ Marco Silva admitted. ‘Very hard to lose the game like we lost this afternoon, but that’s the reality.

‘When the game was completely under our control, we conceded from a free kick, it was completely our fault.

Brighton secured a last-gasp victory over Fulham thanks to Joao Pedro's 98th-minute penalty

The Seagulls now lie sixth place in the Premier League table - just a point off Man City in fourth

Fulham boss Marco Silva admitted it was 'clearly our fault' how his side lost the match

‘It’s clearly our fault the way we lost the game this afternoon.’

For Brighton it is now a sixth successive win since that 7-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest. Momentum in the race for Europe, you'd think, is very much with them, but Fabian Hurzeler remained pensive.

'In the Premier League every game is a new challenge, we have to be happy about the situation at the moment, we have to enjoy it, then focus on the next challenge.

‘We have to keep working, keep doing the hard work, to keep maybe the momentum, if there is momentum.'

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but for this young and vibrant Brighton side, it didn’t matter in the slightest.

It felt like these two were too well-matched at times. For 35 minutes, there was little to set the pulse racing before Alex Iwobi and Jimenez combined for a goal beautiful in both its simplicity and its execution.

Picking up the ball inside his own half, Iwobi sprinted down the right before crossing to the back stick for Jimenez to chest down and smash home on the half-volley.

The lead, lasted only six minutes, and it was another oh-so-simple goal, this time Van Hecke ghosting into the box unmarked to head home Yasin Ayari’s free-kick to level the tie.

Fulham opened the scoring with Raul Jimenez notching his 10th league goal of the season

Jan Paul van Hecke responded for the hosts just six minutes later following a free-kick

Joao Pedro was flawless from the spot to secure three points and his seventh goal this season

Brighton were by far the better side in the second half, and twice saw goals ruled out for offside as Fulham rode their luck.

With six minutes to play, Danny Welbeck somehow headed wide of the mark completely unopposed from six yards, but ultimately the deciding touch fell to the one man Brighton fans would have wanted.

A clumsy challenge from Reed brought Pedro down, and after a long wait, the Brazilian set himself, swaggered up to the spot, and sealed all three points, deservedly, for the Seagulls, who soar closer to their European dream as a result.

There were question marks over the veracity of the penalty that sealed that win, naturally given the decisive nature of it, despite replays showing contact between Reed and the back of Pedro’s foot, but Marco Silva ruled out any complaint.

‘I will not complain because it was a typical penalty, where a clever striker touched the ball and felt the contact there. If it’s soft or not, he was clever and if it was on my side I would ask for a penalty, too’