Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler was happy to erase bad memories from the City Ground after his side earned a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
The Seagulls avenged the 7-0 defeat they suffered here back in February, with the victory helping them climb to fifth in the Premier League table.
Sean Dyche’s half-time plans would have changed when Brighton broke the deadlock right before the interval with their 13th shot of the half as Maxim De Cuyper grabbed his second goal of the season.
Brighton sealed all three points in the 88th minute through substitute Stefanos Tzimas’ first goal of the league campaign following a mistake from Morato.
Hurzeler admitted they came to the City Ground to “clean the air” following their humbling loss last season.
The German said: “We started the game good, we arrived here with some memories regarding last season but we came here to clean the air, not only ourselves but the fans and happy they can have a good weekend.
“We suffered in certain moments in the second half. They brought some quality but we defended the box well. How you stick together and suffer through this period was impressive and on top of that we created a lot of chances.
“Overall it was a good performance. We know last season we weren’t at our highest level here, it was a bad moment for everyone in the club but the most important thing is how you react and come back.
“It’s important to prepare the best next for Aston Villa which will be a big challenge.”
Brighton failed to keep a clean sheet in their first nine games of the season but the shutout at Forest means they have now kept three in their last four matches.
Hurzeler says his side have started to make better habits on the field leading to less goals being conceded.
He added: “I always mentioned don’t overreact when you have a bad experience.
“From these principles you create behaviour and behaviour should create habits but to create habits it takes time. When you create a habit you don’t think about it on the pitch.
“Some things take time. We are still not there where we can be, there are things we can still improve you saw it in the second half. It’s important to keep improving and creating habits.”
Nottingham Forest boss Dyche admitted his side lost the game in the opening 20 minutes.
He said: “After the first 20 minutes where we’ve been a long way off where we’ve been. We didn’t start right and then regripped the game and were strong and then to give away a soft goal was disappointing after weathering a storm.
“Second half we gave a strong performance. Fatigue at the end of the half and we switched off.
“There was a lot of good in the performance, the dominant feel, so really pleased on that side but just an error costs us a second goal. The scoreline looks different from the reality.
“I just thought they were miles off it. Not taking anything away from them, they’re a good outfit but we gave them the upper hand by not being close to where we need to be.”
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