Van Hecke the rescuer as resilient Brighton earn late point at Molineux

Brighton and Hove Albion dug in, trusted their set-piece craft and were rewarded when Jan Paul van Hecke powered in a late header to secure a 1-1 draw at Wolves. It came after a first-half setback in which Marshall Munetsi’s rocket ricocheted in off Bart Verbruggen for an own goal moments after Vítor Pereira was sent off.

The Seagulls were below their fluent best but asserted control after the interval, eventually turning pressure into parity with a well-worked short-corner routine. It extended their excellent record at Molineux and backed up last week’s victory at Chelsea, even if head coach Fabian Hürzeler called it a good rather than great performance.

Misfortune, then mindset

A chaotic minute swung the first half. Pereira’s dismissal for kicking a loose ball set a febrile tone and, not long after, Munetsi seized on a half-clearance to unleash a vicious strike. Verbruggen did brilliantly to tip it against the bar, only for the rebound to go in off him—an own goal born of sheer bad luck.

Brighton had to lean on the mentality Hürzeler demanded before kick-off: responsibility and resilience. They did not panic, tightened their structure and waited for their moments to build sustained pressure after the break.

Control without the polish

After half-time, Brighton’s territorial grip was clear. They registered 26 touches in Wolves’ box to the hosts’ nine and completed 104 passes in the final third compared to Wolves’ 35, numbers that reflected their growing command even if the final ball did not always land.

This was not the high-tempo slickness of the recent past, and Hürzeler’s blueprint—control and intensity in and out of possession—is still being refined. Yet the visitors created enough jeopardy: Sam Johnstone had to save superbly from Georginio Rutter to keep Wolves ahead, and the Seagulls kept asking the question.

A drilled corner and a decisive header

Wolves felt the ball had gone out before the sequence, but Brighton stayed on task and worked a short corner with precision. Yankuba Minteh rolled it to Maxim De Cuyper, whose inviting delivery was glanced on by Stefanos Tzimas and met by Van Hecke’s emphatic header into the bottom corner with four minutes to play.

It was an equaliser that underlined Brighton’s habit of finding a way at Molineux—just one defeat in their past dozen league visits here, and four straight wins before this draw. Not a vintage display, but a valuable point earned the hard way.

Takeaways for Hürzeler’s Brighton

Hürzeler summed it up: good, not great, but full of character. Van Hecke embodied that spirit on a day when Verbruggen endured harsh fortune yet the collective kept believing until the final act.

Wolves threatened to close the door—Arias missed a gilt-edged chance at 1-0 and Strand Larsen hit the post—but Brighton stayed on the front foot and took their chance. With momentum from the Chelsea win and a point secured here, the evolution under Hürzeler continues with resilience as its core.