Athletic were cruelly robbed of a point that they richly deserved by a last minute goal by Sandaza. The Latics were cruising to a 1-1 draw and the heartbreak moment came six minutes into injury time to send them back from the Withdean Stadium with nothing to show for their exploits although it left the Brighton fans in a thoroughly relieved state and sent them to the top of the league.
Manager Paul Dickov, obviously disappointed as he thought that his side deserved a point at least, was philosophical and said that they must put their disappointment behind them and concentrate on the next match which is a trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday. He commented, "We have a big game on Tuesday and, if we perform like the way we did today, it is one we can win. We cannot change what happened today, however much we would like to, and it has gone and we must move forward. We are continually saying set pieces win or lose you games. We conceded two from set-pieces today and it ultimately cost us the game. That is something we will have to refocus on and we will learn from our mistakes. Once we cut out the silly errors, we will be alright."
The visitors took the lead on the half hour after Brighton seemed to be in charge but Chris Taylor laid the ball to Lewis Alessandra (pictured) who scored with a shot low past Ankergren. Taylor himself almost scored but the Seagull's keeper came to their rescue to deny the Latics a convincing half-time lead. How it changed just before the break though as Brighton scored a minute from the whistle through Barnes from a Bennett corner.
The second half was an end-to-end affair with chances falling to both sides and when Dean Kelly replaced Alessandra he almost made an immediate impact but was also denied. The referee had indicated five minutes of stoppage time, but the killer punch came six minutes into time added on. It was tough luck on the Latics but it's swings and roundabouts at the moment as they did a similar thing to Bournemouth just seven days earlier. Onwards and upwards and bring it on again as the Latics travel to Hillsborough in three days time.