Chris Hughton says Brighton are excited about Championship promotion chase

Chris Hughton says Brighton's players are 'excited' about the finale to the Championship season after seeing them bolster their promotion hopes with a dramatic 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest.

Steve Sidwell swept home a 91st-minute winner on a night when either side could have snatched all three points at the City Ground.

Dexter Blackstock had earlier cancelled out a Lewis Dunk header with one of his own but while Forest missed their chances to take the spoils, Brighton were ruthless and now trail leaders Burnley and second-placed Middlesbrough by two points and one respectively.

"Every game is the same, there is always apprehension whether it is the first game or the last - but this is an exciting period of the season," said Hughton.

"The players are all excited about what the next game will bring; they are excited about the end to the season and what is to come. We have to embrace that."

Hughton admitted he would feel hard done by had he been in Forest's shoes at the final whistle.

"There are no teams in this division who will lie down and they will be disappointed that they have not come out of this game with something, given how they played in the second half," he said.

"We felt that the game was becoming open and we felt we could bring players off the bench who could influence the game. We have four very good wide players and good competition in those areas.

"One thing about Sidwell is that he can break forward from midfield. I did not bring him on for that, but I am very glad he did it."

Forest head coach Paul Williams agreed that the result had been harsh on the Reds, saying: "It has been very cruel to us, hasn't it?

"At half-time we asked the players to believe in themselves. Brighton have got some good players, but so have we and we wanted the players to believe in themselves.

"In the first half we showed too much respect to Brighton but in the second, we did the hard miles. We created plenty of chances and we did not take them but they took one in injury time and took all three points.

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"Brighton are up there in the table for a reason but we wanted the players to get amongst them and we did. We created more chances than we had done for a long time but we could not put them away.

"I could not believe it when they scored. It was hard to take. It was hard to take for the players. On another day we could have been 3-1 up but it wasn't to be and we ended up losing the game, which felt harsh."

Forest's recent run of injury problems continued as Northern Ireland forward Jamie Ward limped off in the first half.

"Jamie has a hamstring problem again, which is not great," said Williams.

"We do not know how serious it is at the moment we will see how he is after the medical staff see him. Hopefully it will not be too bad."