Brighton 1, Scarborough 0

Goals are becoming a scarce and priceless commodity for Scarborough in their battle to avoid relegation from the Football League.

Knock on wood: Midfielder Jason Lydiate, whose header hit the Brighton bar, is seen here in pre-season action against York City.

The only goal they have scored in the last three games has been from the penalty spot and for the second successive away game they lost by a single goal, although they had chances to take at least one point and possibly all three.

Manager Mick Wadsworth has changed his tactics to stiffen the defence with three experienced central defenders in Derek Mountfield, Jamie Hoyland and Alex Marinkov bringing much needed stability to the side.

"I thought we did enough to get a result and again I feel sorry for the players because they put a lot of effort in and didn't deserve to lose" said Wadsworth.

However, Scarborough's scoring opportunities are now relatively few and they do not have a striker at the moment who is capable of converting these occasional chances. Chris Greenacre, on loan from Manchester City, had Scarborough's best chance of the game before Brighton scored.

The impressive Matthew Russell broke out of defence at pace and spotting Greenacre in space in the penalty area, picked him out with an inch-perfect cross which invited a crisp finish.

However, Greenacre took so long to get the ball under control that the Brighton goalkeeper, Mark Walton, was able to dash from his line to smother the eventual shot.

Walton had been a total spectator in the first half as Scarborough struggled to make any headway against a side that had lost their manager, Brian Horton, to Port Vale just twenty four hours before.

Brighton seemed to shake off this loss quite easily and should have made more of the almost ceaseless pressure that they put on the Scarborough goal.

Richard Baker and Stuart Storer both headed wide when they should have hit the target, but the only save of note that debutant goalkeeper Phil Naisbett had to make was from a Gary Hart header just before the break.

Later, Hart deflected a Paul Armstrong shot against the post with Naisbett gratefully falling on the loose ball.

Jason Lydiate played in midfield and brought much enthusiasm to his role and in a rare Scarborough attack, saw a header bounce against the home crossbar, although Walton probably got a fingertip to the effort.

It seemed as though Wadsworth's plan was going to succeed until the 83rd minute when substitute Jamie Moralee whipped in a cross to the far post, with Armstrong heading firmly past Nalsbett.

This set up a frantic finale, with Scarborough throwing men forward and producing the only sustained period of pressure on the Brighton goal in the whole game.

Boro match facts

Brighton 1, Scarborough 0

Brighton: Walton, Mayo, Johnson, Culverhouse, Bennett, Sturgess, Arnott, Armstrong, Storer, Hart (Ansah 90), Baker (Moralee 76) Sub (not used): Allan. Scorer: Armstrong 83

Scarborough: Naisbett, Russell, Hoyland, Mountfield, (McNaughton 86), Marinkov, Atkinson, (Rainford HT), Kay, Bullimore, Lydiate, Brodie (Tate 76), Greenacre. Caution: Atkinson

Referee: P Taylor (Herts)

Attendance: 3,499

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.