It's hard to find many positives with beleaguered Brighton

Premier League

Brighton 0 Cardiff 2
Mendez-Laing 22
Morrison 50

The story of the match

A huge game in the Premier League relegation dogfight saw Cardiff narrow the gap on Brighton to just two points with a vital victory in a match that lacked quality apart from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing's cracking opener.

Albion started swiftly with Solly March hitting the side-netting and also shooting wide, while Glenn Murray was thwarted by Neil Etheridge, who just reached Alireza Jahanbakhsh's through-pass before the veteran striker.

However, the match turned after 22 minutes when Cardiff winger Mendez-Laing started, and then brilliantly finished, a counter-attack with a curling shot into the top corner.

Brighton, obviously lacking in confidence after a terrible run of results, played like a side feeling the tension from that moment and the Bluebirds doubled their advantage early in the second half with Victor Camarasa's perfect free-kick delivery for Sean Morrison to nod in.

"You're going down with the Fulham", taunted the visiting supporters and there were loud boos from the Amex regulars at full-time as Brighton failed to find a path back into the match.

Murray shot over and later hit the post, while substitute Florin Andone saw a shot blocked by Morrison as Brighton failed to score for the fifth consecutive encounter.

Tactics

Chris Hughton decided that last season's influential midfielder Pascal Gross would feature for the first time since February 26 and it was mainly back to what worked in 2017-18, with Jahanbakhsh and left-back Bernardo the only summer signings to be involved.

Critics of Hughton claim he is too negative and that looked the case in this encounter as Brighton finished with only two shots on target despite chasing the match for three quarters of its duration.

Strengths

It's hard to find many positives given the dire result. March at least offered a threat and midfielders Dale Stephens and Davy Propper popped the passes around okay without offering much penetration.

Weaknesses

There looked to be more attacking intent once Andone partnered Murray and Hughton should be thinking of trying to change the dynamic of the team by introducing another striker rather than his usual 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1/4-5-1 options.

The pair have not started together since Andone arrived at the club but Murray is crying out for a bit more support, particularly as link man Gross still looks short of peak fitness.

Brighton's foundations used to come from the centre-backs but even Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk seem to be wobbling with Dunk losing Morrison for Cardiff's critical second.

Goalscorer notebook

The Seagulls have not scored since March's fluke free kick at Millwall with five blanks in a row, including home matches against Southampton, Bournemouth and Cardiff.

Those three reasonably comfortable Amex fixtures saw Hughton's side manage a grand total of four shots on target, so clearly few players stand out in the scoring stakes.

On this evidence March looked liveliest of Albion's attacking options.

View from the camp

Hughton said: "If we're not going to score goals we need to be more resilient. Over the past few games we have not been like that.

"We're lacking real cutting edge to allow us to score goals and the team is feeling the pressure from that."

Pointers

Brighton are in big trouble given they are totally lacking in confidence and many fans are losing faith in Hughton's ability to turn the tide in a largely horrendous run-in.

The Seagulls won't be expecting anything from away trips to Tottenham or Arsenal, nor the home match with Manchester City on the final day, so their two-point advantage over Cardiff is precarious despite their game in hand.

Saturday's trip to Wolves is difficult enough without the pressure of a relegation battle and Brighton may well be putting all of their attention on beating Newcastle at the Amex on April 27.

However, their best hope may be that Cardiff don't save themselves because if the Bluebirds pick up two wins it could be curtains for Albion.

Opposition

Cardiff's home date with Liverpool and final-day trip to Old Trafford don't offer up much hope of points but between that they face Fulham on the road and they are at home to Crystal Palace, which are more winnable encounters for Neil Warnock's dogged outfit.

They have an obvious lack of individual talent but City did the basics well at Brighton with Morrison excellent at the back.

Camarasa and Joe Ralls are both excellent at delivering dead-ball deliveries and central midfield is their influential area with those two alongside Aron Gunnarsson.

If Cardiff are to upset the odds it could well come down to their midfield with Harry Arter set to return for the Fulham game and Warnock describing Leandro Bacuna's substitute outing at Brighton as "like Pogba".

On-loan striker Oumar Niasse has not scored this season and set-pieces remains Cardiff's most likely path to goal.

Teams

Brighton 4-2-3-1: Ryan; Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Bernardo; Stephens, Propper; Jahanbakhsh (Izquierdo 69), Gross (Andone 54), March; Murray.

Cardiff 4-2-3-1: Etheridge; Peltier, Morrison, Ecuele-Manga, Bennett; Gunnarsson (Bacuna 55), Ralls; Mendez-Laing (Harris 80), Camarasa, Hoilett; Niasse (Zohore 85).

Remaining fixtures

Brighton: Wolves (a), Tottenham (a), Newcastle (h), Arsenal (a), Man City (h).

Cardiff: Liverpool (h), Fulham (a), Crystal Palace (h), Man Utd (a).

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