Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Albion gained a vital point in the fight for Premier League survival.
In a few frantic second-half minutes Pascal Gross gave the ball to Gaetan Bong with an awful pass.
It led to Son Heung-Min sidestepping Lewis Dunk to drag the ball past Maty Ryan and supply Harry Kane with his 26th Premier League goal of the season as the striker swept his shot home via Bruno.
Albion went straight on the attack from the restart. And Izquierdo was brought down by Serge Aurier with Pascal Gross firing home the resulting penalty via the outstretched hand of Hugo Lloris.
Albion had tested Lloris on the first half – a flick from Dale Stephens, a deflected half valley from Anthony Knockaert and a pile driver from Gaetan Bong saw Lloris make routine first-half saves.
Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane saw the Albion wall – and Ryan – deal with some close-range free kicks.
On the stroke of half time Son saw a close-range effort brilliantly saved by Ryan.
The first five minutes of the second half was dominated by goal action. Albion had few other chances to score.
Gross saw an effort go way over the bar after good work by Solly March who had replaced Izquierdo.
Another Albion substitution saw Glenn Murray replaced by Leo Ulloa. March and Ulloa linked up well and Ulloa almost capitalised on a Lloris slip but the keeper recovered in time.
As time ticked down Eriksen saw his shot deflected away by Shane Duffy. For a second it looked like the ball had looped up towards Ryan’s goal.
Erik Lamela shot tamely at Ryan with injury time approaching, then a curious moment as Ryan claimed a corner and quickly sent the ball scurrying away, only for referee Kevin Friend to blow up for a foul or possible too many steps!
Albion move eight points clear of both Stoke City and Southampton and twelve clear of West Brom.
Four games left for the Seagulls start with Burnley in 10 days’ time at Turf Moor.
Then it’s all plain sailing … Manchester United at home, Manchester City away followed by Liverpool away four days later.
Thirty-six points is a good haul, especially when a couple of the teams in the bottom half have to play each other.
Going into the Manchester United fixture at the Amex with it all to play for is an achievement in itself. Many tipped the Seagulls to eclipse Derby’s woeful haul of 11 points in 2008. As Jimmy Melia once said: “We’ve proved them all wrong, haven’t we!”
