A brace from Will Buckley secured a comfortable 2-0 win for Brighton & Hove Albion in their Championship clash with Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.
The Seagulls began on the front foot and had the first sight of goal. Stephen Ward launched an effort from distance, and Adam Bogdan had to do well to parry the ball away from goal.
However, minutes later Bogdan was powerless to stop Brighton from taking the lead when he parried Leonardo Ulloa's goal-bound effort, but Buckley was on hand to tap the ball home on the rebound.
Bolton nearly found an equaliser when Alex Baptiste fired at goal from distance and Tomasz Kuszczak was forced into a good save.
The Trotters upped the ante towards the end of the half, but they were denied by Kuszczak as he made two good stops to turn away David Wheater and then Lee Chung-Yong.
After the break, Joe Mason came close to finding an equaliser for his side as he fired at goal from a tight angle, but his effort went just wide of the post.
Brighton then replied with an effort of their own when Jesse Lingard raided down the right and teed up Dale Stephens on the edge of the area, but his low shot was saved by Bogdan.
Buckley doubled his side's advantage in the 65th minute when he raided through the middle and found himself through on goal, and he made no mistake in firing past Bogdan.
Bolton tried to get a consolation goal, but the Brighton defence held out to keep a clean sheet and secure a vital win for Oscar Garcia's side.
Simon Sinclair
