Chris Hughton's Brighton made sure of Premier League football next season with two games to spare after a Pascal Gross goal gave them a 1-0 home win over Manchester United.
The German forward headed home a Jose Izquierdo cross in the 57th minute as Brighton dominated the contest and only a string of good saves by United keeper David de Gea denied the home side a bigger win.
The result lifted Brighton into 11th place on 40 points from 36 matches and left them assured of finishing above the bottom three as they visit champions Manchester City on Wednesday before their final game away to Liverpool.
Marcus Rashford and unsettled forward Anthony Martial got a rare start together for second-placed United but failed to make any impact as the visitors looked disjointed and bereft of ideas, with their final pass going astray all evening.
"I’ve had a group of player with great belief and discipline," said former Ireland international Hughton.
"I think it shows today what it means to the team.
"We learned probably after the first few games [that] performances were good enough that we felt that we could compete.
"When we’ve needed the big moments [in the season we had them]. I think that gave the team real confidence that we could compete.
"I thought every man was brilliant."
It is some achievement for Hughton, who guided Brighton into the Premier League for the first time last season, and for a club who 21 years ago this week needed a late equaliser at Hereford to save themselves from dropping out of the Football League altogether.
Job done 👍#BHAFC 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/x1efoYzsYJ
— Brighton & Hove Albion ⚽️ (@OfficialBHAFC) May 4, 2018
Jose Mourinho did make six changes to a United side which was missing Romelu Lukaku, as expected, but the absence of Alexis Sanchez, also through injury, set alarm bells ringing 15 days before they play Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
It meant rare chances in attack for Rashford and Martial in a line-up, which also included Sunday's match-winner against Arsenal, Marouane Fellaini.
The Belgian, whose future remains uncertain with his contract almost up, had the ball in the net after only three minutes but he was offside when he turned home Rashford's free-kick.
That was about as good as it got in a horribly disjointed display from United.
Paul Pogba was back to his laid-back worst and Juan Mata's passing was horribly out of kilter.
Brighton began to sense it might be the night to get the win they needed and David De Gea had to be alert to keep out a low Gross shot.
De Gea was then almost caught out by a dipping 25-yard effort from Glenn Murray which he pushed away at full stretch, before the Spaniard tipped Jose Izquierdo's fierce drive over and denied Gross again at his near post.
The hosts, aside from one Lewis Dunk slip which Rashford was unable to take advantage of, were well on top but could not find the breakthrough before half-time.
But Brighton got the goal they deserved in the 56th minute when Izqueirdo skipped past Matteo Darmian and stood a cross up towards the far post.
De Gea pushed the ball onto the head of Gross and although Marcos Rojo hooked it clear from underneath the crossbar goalline technology confirmed it had crossed the line.
United belatedly rallied but Maty Ryan saved from Rashford and Jesse Lingard fired wide as Brighton held out for a memorable and thoroughly merited win.
