Glenn Murray believes Albion conquered a rival and some nerves on their way to three valuable points.

But it was a stylish win once things opened up.

The two-goal striker said he could sense neither the Seagulls nor Swansea were getting to grips with things in the first half.

There could be some nervy, anxious matches ahead in this complex battle against relegation.

And, for about an hour, this was a preview of that.

But a change of formation by the visitors in response to Murray’s opening penalty gave Albion the chance to get into their attacking stride.

It was easy to forget amid the post-match euphoria that things had been very different until some way into the second half.

In the first 45 minutes, the home crowd were subdued and their team disjointed, even after going 1-0 up.

But Murray had not forgotten that as he offered his own analysis of what had gone before.

He told The Argus: “To put them to the sword and score four goals against them was a big afternoon for us.

“Being involved, it felt a bit of a nervy affair.

“I don’t think either team really took the game by the scruff of the neck. We got a penalty, managed to edge in front.

“But I think possibly Swansea had the better of the first half after that.

“In the second half, we got our foot on the ball.

“Swansea changed their shape and I think we found we had a lot more space going forward and we managed to capitalise on that.”

With Pascal Gross finding gaps and Jose Izquierdo getting better and better, Albion became more of a threat.

Though right-sided centre-back Mike van der Hoorn was badly at fault for the spot-kick, right-back Kyle Naughton certainly missed the help of his sidekick when the ex-Ajax man went off at the break.

Gross and Murray, two experienced footballers who rely on intelligence ahead of pace, appear to be speaking each other’s football language with increasing fluency.

And there were combinations similar to that which led to Izquierdo’s stunning recent goal at Stoke, not least when Murray scored the second.

Murray said: “We got in positions and maybe in previous weeks we haven’t picked the right option.

“I felt this afternoon we did pick the right option.”

Murray also made the right choice for that important opening goal, chipping his penalty down the middle as Lukasz Fabianski dived to his left.

The scorer does his research on opposing goalkeepers, especially at spot-kicks.

He said: “We had a look at Fabianski’s previous 20 penalties and worked out where I was going.”

As the dust settled on a big Albion win, accolades came Murray’s way, including one from a Goldstone favourite.

John Byrne, the ex-Republic of Ireland international, tweeted: “Glenn Murray absolute quality today. Top player and top professional. Centre-forward master class. Sometimes the brains better than sheer pace.”