BOSS Chris Hughton has welcomed Albion’s return to mean mood ahead of two crucial home games.

The Seagulls boss marked his 100th league match in charge with his 50th victory at Barnsley to set them up for showdowns against promotion rivals Reading at the Amex on Saturday and Newcastle three nights later.

The 2-0 win at Oakwell yielded Albion’s first away clean sheet in the Championship this year and only the second in nine games after seven shut-outs in 11 to end 2016.

Hughton told The Argus: “The clean sheet was the basis. It was a solid team performance. We restricted them to minimal chances.

“You want the goalkeeper to be fairly comfortable. For an away game I thought Stocko (David Stockdale) was very good but fairly comfortable.

“At 0-0 I knew the game would open up. All you wanted is to make sure it opened up in our favour. We broke really well and could have had more goals at the end.”

Reading are nine points adrift of Albion with 14 games to go.

They go to Huddersfield tomorrow night, who are chasing in third, seven points adrift of Hughton’s leaders with a game in hand.

Hughton said: “It’s about the next game. It’s going to be a very tough one against Reading, but we’ll be better for that (Barnsley) performance. It’s a wonderful game to look forward to.”