Gus Poyet heaped praise on Will Buckley after his late strike against Leicester extended Brighton's unbeaten run to eight league and cup games.

Buckley struck in the last minute to keep Brighton on the coattails of the clubs in the Championship play-off places in a match which also produced three red cards.

Leicester saw Jermaine Beckford dismissed in the 53rd minute and then had Neil Danns sent off in the 90th minute as the visitors finished with eight men having also seen substitute Nathan Delfouneso being forced off injured late on.

Brighton midfielder Matt Sparrow also received his marching orders in the 85th minute but it would be his side celebrating at the end thanks to Buckley after he volleyed in Vicente Rodriguez's cross.

A delighted Poyet said of the 22-year-old Buckley, who has now netted five goals in his past six games, on his club's website: "No-one can touch Bucca at the moment because he is on fire.

"He's always there and the balls are falling to him in the right places at the right times. He's creating the chances and he's scoring goals. When somebody is playing as well as Bucca they need to be playing 90 minutes.

"It was a really great touch and finish. He didn't give the goalkeeper a chance to stop it. You have to give massive credit to him (Buckley) because in those situations you can panic and put it over the bar, but he didn't."

Poyet also hailed the performance of second-half substitute Vicente, saying of the former Spain winger: "It was a very competitive game. There were two very organised teams out there but Vicente showed a bit of real quality.

"In these sorts of games if you are organised, defend well, are patient and have someone like Vicente to step up and help, then you will win plenty.

"That is exactly why we have him and put him on the bench when fit. It wasn't an easy decision to take off Macca (Craig Mackail-Smith) when you are one player up but I needed Vicente on the pitch and credit to Vicente as well because he stepped up."

It was Leicester's first away defeat since losing 2-1 at Doncaster in mid-December and manager Nigel Pearson felt they deserved to have taken something from the match.

He said: "It was a decent game, Brighton got on top in the first half but we also played some good football and had good opportunities.

"It was evenly-poised game and it was cruel on our players to concede so late on.

"But I am proud of how our players went about it. It's a tough place to come, Brighton provide tough opposition and have their own style of football.

"The game was played in a good spirit by two good sides but unfortunately we have been beaten by a very late goal."