BURNLEY - Brighton & Hove Albion were held to a 1-1 draw at Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday after a Johann Gudmundsson strike cancelled out a first half header from Lewis Dunk.
Brighton, who won three of their last four games, including wins over Tottenham Hotspur and champions Liverpool, were forced to share the spoils after failing to hold on to a lead yet again this season but Dunk was satisfied with the result.
"If you'd offered me seven points at the start of this week I'd have snapped your hand off. It's been a good week," Dunk told Sky Sports.
ALSO READ: Ollie Watkins strikes early as Aston Villa sink Arsenal
Burnley started brightly, with Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez tested twice in the first half, first going low to deny Dwight McNeil's free kick before denying James Tarkowski on the line at the back post following a corner kick.
But despite Burnley's ascendancy, they conceded the opener at the other end from a corner in the 36th minute when Brighton skipper Dunk rose over the defence and powered a header home for his third league goal of the season.
"From the start of the season we've improved massively at set pieces," Dunk added. "We've worked on it and have started causing problems for the opposition. Hopefully we can start getting more goals from those situations."
ALSO READ: Manchester, Merseyside clubs unite to condemn racism in social media
Brighton then conceded their first goal in five games eight minutes after the restart when Sanchez parried a save into the path of Gudmundsson and the unmarked Icelandic winger had time to control the ball to strike it into the bottom corner.
But Burnley were unable to capitalise on that spark and Gudmundsson said they were disappointed after picking up only a point.
"In the second half we definitely put them in a bit more trouble. We should have taken the chances we had," Gudmundsson said.
"Having gone 1-0 down, it was a good comeback for us but there's disappointment we didn't take all three points."
Burnley are 17th in the standings with 23 points, nine points above the relegation zone, while Brighton are two points above them in 15th.
Meanwhile, Newcastle United hung on for a 3-2 victory over Southampton despite finishing a rip-roaring Premier League contest with nine men at St James' Park on Saturday.
Southampton, who were hammered 9-0 at Manchester United in midweek, found themselves 2-0 down after 25 minutes with Joe Willock netting on his Newcastle debut and the hapless Jan Bednarek scoring an own goal.
Takumi Minamino, also on his debut, replied for Southampton with a superb finish, but just before halftime the visitors self-destructed in defence again to allow Miguel Almiron to send the hosts in with a 3-1 lead.
A sensational free kick by James Ward-Prowse three minutes into the second half gave Southampton impetus, and Newcastle went down to 10 men two minutes later when Jeff Hendrick was sent off.
As the sleet came down, Newcastle were reduced to nine men when defender Fabian Schar suffered an injury and had to be carried off on a stretcher with the hosts having already used up all their substitutions.
Danny Ings hit the post for Southampton as they camped in Newcastle's half.
But Steve Bruce's side hung on to give themselves a healthy buffer above the relegation zone. Newcastle have 25 points from 23 games, with Southampton on 29 from 22 after five league defeats in a row.
Reuters