Brighton ended their six-game winless run with a comfortable Premier League victory over struggling Burnley.
The result lifted the Seagulls up to eighth in the table, while the Clarets’ stay 19th and six points from safety, with their dreadful sequence without a win stretching to 11 matches.
Even more damaging for Scott Parker and his side’s hopes of retaining their top-flight status, is that since 26 October they have collected just two points from the possible 33 on offer.
And there was an inevitability about the outcome of this encounter once Georginio Rutter’s thumping low finish had put the hosts ahead in an uninspiring first half.
While Yasin Ayari’s effort fortuitously deflected into the Frenchman’s path off 18-year-old Greek forward Charalampos Kostoulas – on his first top-flight start – the visitors could hardly complain about the 29th-minute opener.
Burnley had offered little as an attacking force and fell further behind 66 seconds after the restart when Ayari drove a low strike into the bottom left corner with Lesley Ugochukwu guilty of a poor pass on the edge of his own penalty area.
On a disappointing afternoon for the visitors, substitute Loum Tchaouna came closest to scoring but his header was headed on to the bar and away by the alert Ferdi Kadioglu.
Had that dropped in, it may have offered Burnley hope heading into the final quarter.
Instead there was a more celebratory feel to the closing stages, with Pascal Gross’ introduction a day after returning to Brighton from Borussia Dortmund, drawing huge cheers.
The hosts almost added a late third from a Maxim de Cuyper free-kick that thudded against the post.
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