Saints made their first and probably last visit to the Championship’s most dilapidated stadium on Saturday, as they faced south coast neighbours Brighton in front of a record crowd at The Withdean.
The heavily sanded pitch and unusual surroundings didn’t prove to be as troublesome as could be expected, as Saints dominated the match from the start.
Brighton could not contain Saints excellent passing game as Burley’s team played their way out of the relegation battle.
Saints had plenty of chances to take the lead early on, firstly from Belmadi, who should have scored after Henderson had spilt a Ricardo Fuller shot.
Saints width was stretching Brighton’s defence and Darren Powell, Gregorsz Rasiak and Claus Lundekvam all came close with headers.
The breakthrough finally came on 37 minutes, when Ricardo Fuller pounced on another spilt shot from Henderson to score his third goal in two games.
In the second half Brighton began to launch more desperate balls forward, as they searched for the goal they required to keep their slim survival chances alive.
With just over an hour gone Saints killed off any chance of a Brighton comeback, and possibly ended their stay in England’s second tier, when Belmadi broke down the right and cut it back for Richard Chaplow to finish in the bottom left corner.
The result leaves Brighton rock bottom and Saints virtually safe; were now looking to avoid our worst finish in the league since 1960.
Even if Saints don’t pick up another point this season Crewe can now only equal Saints points total but have a far inferior goal difference.
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