Mark McGhee, take a bow. A clever piece of motivation, straight from the manual of his mentor Alex Ferguson, left his leading marksman with a point to prove.

A tactical change by the Second Division manager of the month for March then helped Leon Knight to break the deadlock and foil that losing jinx which supposedly follows the award.

McGhee, it has now emerged, gave Knight his version of Fergie's famed hair-dryer treatment in the dressing room at Hillsborough following the 2-1 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday.

McGhee, without naming names at the time, blamed himself for not taking Knight off as Wednesday snatched a late winner.

Whatever he said and then did in training clearly worked.

Knight, rather than sulking, returned to something like his sharpest form to spearhead Albion's seventh straight home win.

His 25th goal of the season midway through the second half came as a direct result of McGhee's decision to swap Nathan Jones from the left flank to the right in a trade with Gary Hart.

The Welshman made progress down the wing before producing a perfect cross with his right foot to the near post, which the airborne Knight guided in expertly on the volley from close range.

Asked if he realised Jones had a right foot like that, McGhee joked: "It had to be better than his left! We switched them over (Jones and Hart) just to see if we could bring about a bit of a change.

"We had anticipated Nathan or Gary would cut inside on to their stronger foot to cross the ball. As it was, Joner went on his right foot and Leon was there.

"The important lesson for us was that, on a day when a team were digging in against us, we had to be patient, especially when we have a player like Leon who will eventually win the game for us."

Jones was confident he could deliver. "You work on things in training week in and week out," he said.

"In the first half I cut inside and delivered one or two with my right foot which Harty nearly scored from. I am not as surprised as most other people.

"I think the leftback knew I was left-footed and so showed me too much of the line.

"I just attacked the line and whipped it in, but those crosses mean nothing if you haven't got somebody like Leon on the end of them."

With his first club Bristol City providing McGhee with just the result he wanted against Queens Park Rangers, it was somewhat surprising to discover he was not on the Grand National winner Amberleigh House as well.

Ben Roberts could have been, both because he is keen on horse racing and because of the stroke of fortune Albion's in-form keeper enjoyed in a pivotal 53rd-minute incident.

Roberts conceded a penalty when he dived at the feet of Adam Boyd, with the Hartlepool striker clean through.

He escaped with a yellow card from referee Joe Ross which could so easily have been red.

Roberts, on loan to Hartlepool earlier in his career, plunged to his left to save a rather tame spot-kick from Gavin Strachan which could not have impressed dad Gordon, watching from the North Stand.

McGhee admitted: "It was an important moment in the game. In that situation there is always a chance it is going to be a penalty and there is always a chance you will get sent-off."

Hartlepool manager Neale Cooper was in no doubt.

"He (Roberts) was the last man and as far as I am concerned in the rules that is a sending off," complained McGhee's former Aberdeen team-mate.

Ross had a strange match. Knight was booked for leaping over the advertising boards behind the goal after scoring and Hartlepool captain Richie Humphreys was mistaken for colleague Hugh Robertson when he was cautioned.

Chris Iwelumo's downward header from Knight's centre deep into injury time, his third goal in four games, rounded off a great afternoon for Albion.

Bristol City were the only other winners among the top ten and the Seagulls now have a six-point cushion in terms of the play-offs.

Jones said: "A lot of results went for us. We have just got to keep on winning games.

"We are looking realistically at the play-offs, but we are going to keep working hard and pick up as many points as we can. You never know where that will take us."

Jones finished with a swipe at some hard-to-please supporters, who the players feel are not as appreciative as they should be.

"There is not always a fluency in our play, but teams defend deep so we always have to work really hard for our results.

"We've done that and I don't think we get the credit we deserve sometimes.

"No matches are easy. Arsenal are the best footballing side in the country by a mile, but they were turned over by United. We have earned our points lately and hopefully we can reap the rewards."

Albion are now a point closer to automatic promotion than they are to missing out on the play-offs. The last six matches should be interesting, very interesting.

ALBION (4-4-2): Roberts (gk) 8; Knight (f) 9, Hart (rm) 7, Oatway (cm) 7, Carpenter (cm) 7, Butters (cd) 7, N. Jones (lm) 7, Virgo (rb) 7, Harding (lb) 7, El-Abd (rb) 7, Iwelumo (f) 7. Subs: Kuipers, Mayo, McPhee, Lee, Reid.

Scorers: Knight (68), Iwelumo (90).

Bookings: Roberts (53) foul, Knight (68) over-celebrating.

HARTLEPOOL (4-4-2): Provett; Tinkler, Westwood, Clarke, Humphreys, Williams, Boyd, Robertson, Sweeney, Strachan, Craddock. Subs: Danns, Istead for Clarke (withdrawn 71), Jordan, Konstantopoulos, Porter for Williams (withdrawn 81).

Bookings: Humphreys (71) unsporting behaviour, Craddock (77) unsporting behaviour.

Half-Time: Albion 0 Hartlepool 0.

Attendance: 6,257.

Fans' View:

RICHARD TIPPLE (Saltdean)

It was always going to be a game decided by the quality of service to the strikers and Brighton's midfield sorted themselves out after a less than satisfactory first half. Adam Virgo appears more than able to fill Cullip's boots. The penalty decision was a joke as it was offside and Roberts made no contact with the forward.

ASHLEY BRADLEY (Brighton)

We really came into our own in the second half. Chris Iwelumo is turning into a player for years to come and is working well with Leon Knight up front. Bring on Blackpool!

SCOTT McCARTHY (Burgess Hill)

The turning point was the fantastic penalty save from Ben Roberts, who was brilliant. The fans got behind the team after it and we scored two well-worked goals after McGhee switched Hart and Jones over. El-Abd looked good at right-back and Virgo had a good game alongside Butters.

SARA COX (Hartlepool fan)

Brighton did just enough to edge the result and it will be hard to catch them now. They got a big boost when we missed the penalty. My seat wasn't great and the sooner they get a new ground the better.