Albion's Hartening late surge for the play-offs continued with a richly deserved victory.

Gary Hart was the hero with a 69th minute winner which made it 19 points out of the last 21 for the soaring Seagulls.

Substitute Warren Aspinall, replacing the injured Charlie Oatway, found Hart inside the box.

The back-to-form young striker beat keeper Lee Harrison with a right foot shot to send 1,700 Albion fans wild.

It was Hart's first away goal for seven months, his third in his last three appearances and his ninth in total.

More importantly it means that Micky Adams men have closed the gap on Barnet, one of the teams they are chasing, to four points.

The Seagulls were good value for their sixth victory out of seven before a crowd of 3,721 at Underhill.

Andy Crosby thought he had doubled the lead two minutes after Hart's strike with a header from a Paul Watson free-kick. It was disallowed by referee John Kirkby, who spotted his assistant flagging.

This almost led to a controversial equaliser for Barnet as Kirkby then allowed play to continue with Crosby and several of his team-mates still celebrating and caught out of position.

Fortunately for them Mark Walton's smothering save foiled Scott McGleish.

Albion, and the outstanding Danny Cullip in particular, deserved their clean sheet, even though Barnet staged a late rally with only ten men.

Central defender Mark Arber was sent off for the home side on 79 minutes for a second bookable offence.

Martin Ling, signed from Leyton Orient just before Thursday's transfer deadline, made a brief debut as an 87th minute replacement for Hart.

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