Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored the only goal of a tense encounter at the Amex Stadium as Southampton beat Brighton 1-0 in the Premier League
Hojbjerg calmly slotted the ball past Mat Ryan in the 53rd minute following a quick Southampton counter-attack
Brighton almost equalised through Martin Montoya in the 72nd minute, but his sweetly-struck effort from the edge of the box smashed off the crossbar to deny him his first goal for the club
Southampton's third win in their last four league matches moves them up into 16th on 33 points, level with 15th-placed Brighton
 With Southampton and Burnley both winning and Huddersfield losing, 
In a first half full of fight but little creativity from either side, Stuart Armstrong had the first chance to get a shot on goal, but his half-volley was well blocked by a sliding Bernardo six minutes before half-time
Two minutes later and Anthony Knockaert floated a pinpoint cross into a static Glenn Murray in the box, only for his header to spin over the bar
With Southampton looking the more likely to score, Nathan Redmond was presented with a good chance in the 43rd minute after being teed up by Danny Ings on the counter-attack, but he fired his low shot wide
The second half sparked into life when Hojbjerg broke the deadlock
 Armstrong applied heavy pressure on the Brighton backline and laid the ball off to Redmond before he surged forward and teed up Hojbjerg to slot away
Brighton pushed hard for an equaliser with Montoya's shot cracking off the crossbar just before Davy Propper failed to slot past Angus Gunn in the 73rd minute
 The Netherlands international failed to cleanly connect with the ball just inside the box with the goal gaping
In that moment there were appeals for a Brighton penalty as Propper claimed he was pulled down by Hojbjerg, but referee Michael Oliver waved play on
Southampton held firm for the remaining quarter-hour with Brighton limited to shooting from range, and the visitors' tireless defensive work resulted in a vital win for Ralph Hasenhuttl's side in their pursuit of Premier League survival
"That was probably the tale of the game
 The one or two chances they had really good counter-attacking goals and that was the difference between the two teams
"We never really threatened the goalkeeper enough and can't remember him (Gunn) having to make too many saves
"We didn't play at a level that was going to win us a game - particularly at home
""We played with a back four for the first time today in the Premier League and the guys were convinced about that
 They felt it was working
"The last few weeks have been intense (in training) and now we have two shapes when we can switch and that helps us
"The Montoya chance we were a bit lucky, but they didn't have so many chances so I think it was a deserved win for us
"Southampton's danger on the counter-attack mainly stemmed from the endeavour of Redmond, whose pace gave Brighton's backline plenty of problems
His driving run was what created Hojbjerg the space to score Southampton's only goal of the game
Brighton travel to Chelsea on Wednesday, April 3 for a 7
45pm kick-off
 Southampton, meanwhile, host Liverpool on Friday Night Football live on 
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