Chris Hughton hailed Brighton's comeback win at Huddersfield and said his side needed points with their rivals improving.
Newcastle, Cardiff and Saturday's opponents Huddersfield have all picked up form in recent weeks, and the latter threatened to continue that trend by taking a first-minute lead over Hughton's men at the John Smith's Stadium.
But after Steve Mounie's red card, goals in either half from Shane Duffy and Florin Andone, his first for the club, gave Brighton a victory which lifts them nine points above the bottom three.
Hughton told Sky Sports: "At a time when the teams around us and below us are picking up some momentum, Huddersfield got a wonderful win at Wolves and Cardiff won last night, it's important to pick up points and it feels like a big three points for us.
"We made a decision to play Florin today, we have a squad that's really pushing, we thought with the way they play and a high line we might benefit from his runs behind.
"But you need a centre-forward and it has been Glenn [Murray] for us who has been in those positions, and whether it's him, Florin or Jugen you need that kind of finish and delivery."
It was the second time Brighton had faced 10 men after opponents Leicester had James Maddison sent off in their game last weekend, but on that occasion they had thrown away a 1-0 lead and ended up drawing the game.
This time though they made no mistake, and in doing so won a Premier League game after conceding the first goal for the first time in their history.
Hughton added: "I thought we were good after conceding a very early goal. I thought we were good after that. Against 11 men and when they went down to 10 you have to capitalise on that. If I can make a judgement on what we saw last week and this week, it was completely different.
"The ascendancy was with us at half-time and it's always difficult when you're the team that has 10 men how aggressive do you play, it's a difficult decision to make.
"Sometimes it can be down to the players you have, but we made the man advantage show - but you still need a very good goal and And one's was excellent."