Albion's tendency to pull out all the stops against better opponents surfaced again in a resounding fourth home victory out of five.

They reserved their best performance of the season so far for the biggest club in the Second Division.

Their next-best was at Withdean against QPR, the title favourites.

In the First Division last season it was a similar story.

Albion were relegated because of their failure to overcome fellow strugglers such as Wednesday.

The likes of Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Reading were all beaten.

Boss Steve Coppell said: "I think there is an element of that (playing better against better teams). We actually talked about that after the game.

"It could be that what determines success in this division will be the scrappier games.

"Sheffield wanted to have a footballing game and so did we. Both sides were allowed to pass the ball.

"It was a very different kind of game from a lot we've had so far. It will probably be the other kind of games that determine if we are good enough to go up."

So will Leon Knight's ability to maintain his scoring form to replace the goals of Bobby Zamora. Seven in nine League matches is a pretty impressive start.

The watching Sussex cricketers, fresh from their County Championship triumph, had Mushtaq Ahmed. Knight was akin to a Mushtaq googly against his old club, virtually unplayable.

Wednesday didn't know what day it was at times. He teased and tormented them, making Chris Turner eat his words after the Sheffield chief rather foolishly referred to him as a failed footballer in the public spat over Knight's miserable loan stint at Hillsborough last season.

It took Knight only eight minutes to complete the script.

Latching onto Kerry Mayo's clever pass through the inside right channel, he evaded Dean Smith before angling a right-foot drive beyond Kevin Pressman.

No prizes for guessing who Knight was pointing to in the Wednesday dugout from the other side of the pitch as he celebrated.

"It would give any player an extra spur to show the manager what I'm capable of and what he missed," Knight said.

"I've got a lot of catching up to do, because I missed seven or eight months last season.

"When I get a chance I always feel I can put it in. That's the confidence you've got to have.

"Chances are being created for me and I'm putting them in at the moment. The service to me was terrific."

That, more than anything else, is what made this Albion's finest performance to date.

Charlie Oatway (twice), Gary Hart (twice) and Darius Henderson all came close to doubling the advantage in the first half alone.

Hart was closest when he curled a shot against the bar from just outside the box in first half stoppage time.

"We were the most fluent we have been in terms of creating chances," Coppell said.

"There have been games this year when we have drawn or even won and haven't created that many opportunities.

"I like us to have plenty of strikes on goal and I think we had more opportunities than in any other game this season."

The fact that Oatway, nursing a neck injury which has secretly bothered him for the past fortnight, got forward into the opposition penalty area was encouraging.

We have not seen the midfield players doing that too often since the departures of Junior Lewis and Steve Sidwell.

Oatway's quickly taken free-kick before he went off was headed wastefully wide by Knight at the start of the second half, by which time Albion should have been out of sight.

They had to wait until the last seven minutes before they could breathe easily. Young Chris McPhee, a vibrant sub for the injured Knight, drove in his first League goal at the end of an almighty scramble, during which the dependable Guy Butters crashed a shot against the bar.

Wednesday, beaten at Bournemouth four days earlier, were a big disappointment.

Michel Kuipers, exuding confidence on his return from Hull, had a comfortable clean sheet apart from a brilliant reflex stop from Adam Proudlock at close quarters midway through the first half.

The Yorkshiremen improved with the simultaneous introduction of Lloyd Owusu and Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu, a handful as well as a mouthful, but Turner admitted: "It was a bad week for me personally and the supporters who travelled long distances. The fans deserve more.

"The second goal summed it up. Kevin Pressman made a brilliant save, but the determination from Brighton to get the ball over the line was there for all to see. We were too weak."