Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
- Published
Leon Best struck an injury-time winner as Sheffield Wednesday recorded a fourth consecutive home victory with success over play-off-chasing Brighton.
The on-loan striker fired past Seagulls goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak in the first minute of stoppage-time following a powerful surge into the 18-yard box.
Brighton went closest to breaking the deadlock early on when David Rodriguez headed against the crossbar.
Will Buckley also wasted a chance when clean through.
Defeat means Brighton slip to ninth in the Championship table after Ipswich's win, and Oscar Garcia's side are now three points off the play-off places.
After Buckley fired straight at Chris Kirkland with only the Wednesday goalkeeper to beat, Jesse Lingard, who scored four against Wednesday while on-loan at Birmingham earlier in the season, also tested the former Liverpool stopper.
Chances for Stuart Gray's side were rarer but deep into the second half substitute striker Benik Afobe broke clear but his stretched attempt was diverted away by Kuszczak, before Liam Palmer's powerful follow-up attempt whistled marginally over.
Prior to this game, Brighton had never won at Hillsborough in 13 attempts and Best ensured that run would continue when he collected the ball on the left, broke into the penalty area and drove home his fourth Wednesday goal of the season.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Stuart Gray:
"Credit to Leon Best because he's up there on his own against two quality centre-halves in Matthew Upson and Gordon Greer; they're barging him, they're bumping him and his ball retention was excellent.
Post-match: Brighton coach Garcia
"I'm pleased for him because, on the back of the 1-0 defeat to Doncaster when he's missed a good chance to give us the lead, he's just shown the qualities he's got."
Brighton boss Oscar Garcia:
"In my opinion, we were the better side and we created enough chances to score but it's a problem that I've been managing from the beginning
"It's not the first game we played most of the game better than the opposition but the players are disappointed because they know if we don't score it's impossible to win."