Florin Andone was the hero against Huddersfield Town for the second time this season as Brighton and Hove Albion eased their relegation fears with a 1-0 home win on Saturday.

On target in a 2-1 victory when these teams met in December, substitute Andone came to the Seagulls' rescue again as he nodded in Anthony Knockaert's cross 11 minutes from time.

The hosts had long been frustrated in their attempts to find a way through but a sustained period of pressure after a lacklustre first half eventually broke Huddersfield's resistance, leaving Jan Siewert's side 13 points adrift of safety.

In contrast, Chris Hughton's men are now five points clear of 18th-placed Cardiff City, having celebrated a much-needed first league win of 2019.

The urgency associated with the occasion initially seemed lost on the players as a timid opening 30 minutes passed without incident.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh eventually offered a rare flash of first-half intent when he cut in from the left and dipped an excellent effort against the crossbar.

Glenn Murray looked certain to capitalise on Yves Bissouma's intelligent pass eight minutes after the interval, only for Juninho Bacuna to make an excellent last-ditch block.

Jahanbakhsh next side-footed a promising opportunity straight at Jonas Lossl, who did well to parry a powerful Andone strike 20 minutes from time.

But the breakthrough eventually came as the clock counted down towards a stalemate, with Andone, on in place of Murray, glancing a header beyond goalkeeper Lossl from Knockaert's pinpoint left-sided delivery.