Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
- Published
Glenn Murray drew level with Bristol City's Tammy Abraham as the Championship's third-highest goal scorer
Glenn Murray's 19th goal of the season gave second-placed Brighton victory over relegation-threatened Blackburn.
The striker found the bottom corner in the second half from Anthony Knockaert's header to help the Seagulls keep pace with leaders Newcastle.
Lewis Dunk had an effort from a corner saved by Jason Steele, while Lucas Joao came closest for Rovers, volleying over the crossbar in the first half.
Rovers struggled to create chances and stay 22nd, a point from safety.
The defeat is Blackburn's first under manager Tony Mowbray, who had won two and drawn five of his seven previous games since taking charge on 22 February.
Brighton, meanwhile, have moved eight points clear of third-placed Huddersfield, but they remain a point behind Newcastle, who beat struggling Wigan 2-1.
There had never been a goalless draw between the two sides in 35 meetings, but Blackburn, who had drawn their last four matches, nullified Brighton in the first half, with Steele making comfortable saves from Dunk, Murray and Jiri Skalak.
However, Mowbray's side offered little going forward and failed to get a shot on target, with Joao's wayward volley the closest they came to scoring.
Brighton's quality told midway through the second half as Knockaert headed Liam Rosenior's cross into the path of Murray, who took two touches to beat Steele at the near post.
Seagulls substitute Tomer Hemed then put Solly March's cross wide of the post before Connor Mahoney's deflected volley flew narrowly wide for Rovers late on.
Brighton manager Chris Hughton: "We have seven games left and each individually will be massive. But today I was far more pleased with our win than the other results.
"We are trying to be as normal as possible with seven games to go and not to change too much.
"It was more important, however, that even in a scrappy game we got the job done."
Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray: "Generally it was pretty tight and 0-0 might have been a fair result from our perspective. We wanted to make life difficult and we nearly did it.
"It looked like 0-0 for most of the game, but it turned in their favour.
"Before this game we had drawn four in a row so we need some wins. We'll have a tough game at Reading at Tuesday as they play expansive football, but we are going to see if we can get three points."