Follow the Seagulls with Ray Eggleton

Our Seagulls beat them 3-0 and the score line makes it sound like an easy win - but it wasn’t.

We played well and scored a couple of good goals and a penalty but Rovers could easily have scored at least as many. It was thanks to our woodwork and Tomasz Kuszczak that we kept the clean sheet.

Before the kick-off we had a tribute to Lance Corporal Jay Brynin, an Albion fan who tragically lost his life in Afghanistan. Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, a buglers played the Last Post.

The sombre proceedings carried over to the first half hour of the game, with neither side impressing on the rain-soaked pitch.

Albion’s injury woes continue. With Will Buckley added to the long injury list it was difficult for coach Oscar Garcia to put out a forward line. He started with just Ashley Barnes and Craig Conway upfront and no obvious wide-man.

Rohan Ince made a welcome return to midfield, where David Lopez, Andrew Crofts and young Jake Forster-Caskey were the other players aiming to support the strikers.

Initially, it was difficult to see where our goals would come from. More than 30 minutes had gone when the Rovers defence provided Barnes the chance to run through on goal but his control was poor and his shot even worse.

However, that missed chance spurred Brighton on and it was Conway, now showing his true potential, who tricked his way into the area and was tripped for a penalty. I have to say there were doubters, me included, as Barnes claimed the ball but he confidently dispatched the 35th minute kick.

Blackburn dominated the start of the second-half. Their tall defenders came up for set pieces and headed chances came and luckily, went. A header from Tommy Spurr rocked the Albion bar and at times it was only Kuszczak who denied the visitors with several good saves. We needed a second goal and when it came it was a peach.

The cross from Conway was so good that Forster-Caskey, one of the shortest players on the pitch, was able to direct a fine header past Jake Kean.

With 30 minutes left Seagulls’ fans could see a win coming and the three points were safe on 77 minutes when Kean could not hold an Andrew Croft volley, allowing the hard working Barnes to grab his second.

Liam Bridcutt came off the bench to make a much welcome appearance and Leroy Lita saw action for the last few minutes.

There were 28,000 at the Amex, a marvellous crowd considering Blackburn brought only a few hundred, and they celebrated a win that pushed us up to 11th, still three points behind Reading in the 6th play-off place but things are looking up.

Hopefully the international break will give us a chance to get a forward back to fitness.

Next up is Wigan away on Saturday week (Nov 23).