Cody Gakpo struck twice, Luis Diaz netting the winner for the Reds after Brighton staged a late fight-back through Simon Adingra and Tariq Lamptey.
Gakpo later said, "Yeah, overall I think the most important is that we won here, and that’s what we did. A tough opponent, a lot of quality. But we showed great character today and I think it was a good game to watch.
"I think two good goals, but I think maybe it should have been more or get an assist as well. But at the end, very happy with the goals as well.
"Very good, very good. Tyler Morton started, he didn’t start that often. Trey (Nyoni) came in late on, and the goalie (Vitezslav Jaros) obviously. I think they did fantastic, so very proud of them as well. Proud of the whole team.
"It’s not always easy if you don’t play that much and then all of a sudden you need to play a game; for example, Conor (Bradley) was a little bit injured, back directly and playing 90 minutes. Everybody did well so really proud of them and really proud of the team."