Fulham 0 Brighton 2: Cottagers' second defeat in four days sees Seagulls climb out of drop zone

Standard Sport29 December 2014

Managerless Brighton hauled themselves out of the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone with a 2-0 victory at Fulham.

The Seagulls, looking for a new boss following Sami Hyypia's departure a week ago, picked up only their second win in 20 matches thanks to second-half goals from Adrian Colunga and Solly March.

Chris Hughton is the favourite for the role, but in the meantime interim boss Nathan Jones is doing a decent job of holding the fort, following up Friday's battling 2-2 draw against Reading with only Brighton's second away win of the season.

Jones is not expected to be considered for the top job, but it will not be lost on the former Albion defender that Fulham are doing pretty well since they gave caretaker Kit Symons the permanent job.

However, the hosts, now safely in mid-table following a wretched start to the campaign, showed little of their recent spark, with the Seagulls running out deserved winners.

Centre-half Lewis Dunk - tellingly Brighton's top scorer this season - also looped a header over the crossbar and sent another straight into the chest of Bettinelli.

Lacklustre Fulham did not trouble their former goalkeeper David Stockdale in the first half, although Ross McCormack's shot was deflected narrowly wide and Hugo Rodallega was inches from turning in Kontstantinos Stafylidis' cross-shot.

Brighton should have gone ahead nine minutes after the interval when Craig Mackail-Smith cut the ball back to Norwich loanee Elliott, who saw his initial shot blocked and his follow-up kept out by the shoulder of Bettinelli.

The ball fell to Colunga with Bettinelli stranded, but the Spanish striker's shot clipped the outside of a post.

However, six minutes later the Seagulls did make the breakthrough after Bennett - one of four Albion players whose loan spells ended after the game - was brought down in the area by Stafylidis.

Colunga stepped up and coolly sent Bettinelli the wrong way from the spot for his fourth goal of the season.

Fulham finally roused themselves but were denied by a familiar face, with Stockdale pulling off a stunning fingertip save to keep out Sean Kavanagh's curler and diving low to his right to deny Rodallega to preserve Brighton's lead.