BRIGHTON enjoyed a deserved lead at the interval thanks to Tom Fraser's goal against Hereford united at Edgar Street.

Brighton’s early danger came from Dean Cox who let fly from 20 yards with a shot which went wide on five minutes.

A speculative 35-yard effort from the midfielder cleared Gulacsi’s bar a couple of minutes later.

The visitors had dominated the early exchanges and made it pay in the ninth minute.

Lloyd Owusu headed across goal and Tom Fraser produced an overhead kick to beat Gulacsi. It was his first League goal since December 2006 and Brighton’s first strike in six hours, 19 minutes.

The visitors came close to scoring again eight minutes later when Cox’s free-kick from 20 yards beat the defensive wall but drew a fine diving save from Gulacsi.

Hereford struggled to gain any sort of foothold as they were harried off the ball at every occasion.

But Steve Guinan did get in a header from Ben Smith’s free-kick, although the ball flew a long way wide of the target.

Brighton continued to pose the greater threat of two ordinary sides, however.

On 38 minutes, Cox’s corner was flicked on by Adam Virgo and Tommy Elphick and Owusu both got in efforts which were cleared by Richard Rose, making his 100th Football League appearance for the Bulls.

At the other end, a free-kick from Marc Pugh flashed through the Brighton defence before being grasped by goalkeeper Michael Kuipers.

But Brighton were soon back on the attack when Richard Jackson presented the ball to Cox whose pass picked out Craig Davies.

The tall striker fired in a shot which was blocked to safety by Gulacsi’s feet.