Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Wigan Athletic

Gary Gardner joined Brighton on a loan deal from Aston Villa in August

A first-minute Gary Gardner strike gave Brighton victory over Wigan to ease the pressure on manager Sami Hyypia.

The Seagulls' quick start proved enough to earn them a first Championship win in 12 games dating back to August.

Defeat for fellow strugglers Wigan leaves them just a point above the drop zone, level on 16 points with Brighton.

Hyypia handed a start to loan signing Elliott Bennett, and his pass released Sam Baldock to cross for Gardner to open the scoring after 54 seconds.

Gardner's first goal since joining on loan from Aston Villa was almost added to when former Newcastle winger Kazenga LuaLua set up Joao Teixeira, but his powerful shot came back off the crossbar.

Wigan threatened when Roger Espinoza crossed and Martyn Waghorn put a glancing header wide of the left-hand post of Christian Walton, who was making his home debut with the Seagulls unable to field Ali Al-Habsi against his parent club.

Wigan goalkeeper Scott Carson made a straightforward save to take a header from Bennett before Walton held a 20-yard free-kick by James Tavernier.

Walton again came to Brighton's rescue by saving a low shot from Waghorn before parrying a goalbound drive by Adam Forshaw.

Waghorn threatened again by getting in between Albion's two centre-halves but his left-foot shot was well saved by the impressive Walton.

Greg Halford, signed on loan from Nottingham Forest, came on for his Seagulls debut in the closing stages after Bennett was forced off after taking a blow to the calf.

Brighton boss Sami Hyypia:

"It's a great feeling to win the game. It was very important to win in this situation and the team showed a lot of character.

"It's a big relief to get the win; I just concentrate on my job and work with the pressures. I do what I believe.

"I make my own pressures as for outside pressures, I don't really care."

Wigan manager Uwe Rosler:

"We just need to be scoring goals. After a game like that, I don't look at the table.

"We can't do more than dominate a game and I don't know what to say after we dominated a game like that.

"The first 10 minutes were not good. We can't retain possession like we did. But apart from that we did everything right."