Steve Melton fired Albion through to Friday's quarter-final Southern Section draw in the LDV Vans Trophy.

The former Nottingham Forest and Stoke midfielder struck a golden goal for Peter Taylor's Seagulls 62 seconds into extra time.

Melton's dramatic winner came moments after Michell Kuipers made a stunning save to keep out Dave Carroll's shot.

The teams were locked at 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes. Geoff Pitcher put Albion ahead on the stroke of half time with his first goal for the club since his £25,000 summer move from Kingstonian.

Nathan Jones gifted Gavin Holligan a 65th minute equaliser for Wycombe when the Welshman left short a backpass to Kuipers.

Jones had ironically been the goalscoring hero in Albion's 1-1 League draw at Wycombe last month. Melton spared his blushes on this occasion with his first goal of the campaign.

Taylor made seven changes to the side which edged out Oldham 1-0 at Withdean on Saturday.

Paul Watson, Kerry Mayo, Gary Hart, Richard Carpenter, Charlie Oatway and Bobby Zamora were all rested while Simon Morgan was still recovering from a head injury.

The team was almost the same as the one which won 2-1 at Swansea in the first round. The only difference was Brooker replacing Watson, thereby ending the latter's run of more than 100 successive appearances.

Wycombe made ten changes to the team which stretched their unbeaten sequence to nine games with Saturday's 1-1 home draw against Swindon.

The only survivor was Senda. Former Seagull Emblen led the attack, while ex-Albion stalwart McCarthy was among a number of first team regulars on the bench.

Wycombe opted for an adventurous 3-4-3 formation, but it was Albion who created an opening inside the first minute. Steele, latching on to Jones' free-kick through the inside left channel, had a low drive from an acute angle saved by the foot of the post by Osborn.

Kuipers, Albion's only ever-present so far this season, and Johnson were spoken to by ref Paul Armstrong following some argie-bargie before a Wycombe corner.

Johnson volleyed in a cross from Lee moments later, but the linesman was already flagging for offside.

The Seagulls put together a sweet passing move, involving several players, in the 13th minute which ended with Steele heading narrowly wide from Jones' left-wing centre.

Emblen, who scored four goals in 15 games for Albion in a loan spell from Charlton under Steve Gritt, collected the first caution of the contest for a foul on Jones ten yards inside Wycombe territory.

Midway through the half, Lehmann turned away from Ryan to feed Steele and his cross narrowly eluded both Brooker and Melton.

Pethick was impressing at rightback while Steele was looking particularly sharp upfront. The pair combined effectively to launch a counter-attack, Steele turning past the pedestrian Ryan again from Pethick's pass out of defence.

Ryan recovered to divert the ball into the path of Brooker, whose chip at goal was blocked for a corner by Johnson.

Crosby was cautioned seven minutes from the break for a challenge off the ball. Lee curled the resulting free-kick from 25 yards wastefully wide.

Johnson had his name taken approaching the break for a rash challenge on Brooker near the halfway line.

Albion took a deserved lead on the stroke of half-time with a neatly crafted goal. A deep cross from the overlapping Jones was nodded back from beyond the far post by Lehmann for Pitcher to break his duck for the club with an assured finish from close range.

Bulman and Emblen both had harmless shots off target for Wycombe in the early stages of the second half.

Albion continued to look the brighter team, with Brooker foiled by an offside flag as he ran on to Melton's pass inside the visitors' area.

Moments later Lehmann could not direct Melton's cross to the near post on target, although the German forward protested that a defender got the final touch and Albion should have been awarded a corner. The caution count became 2-2 on 54 minutes, Pitcher receiving a yellow card for breaking early from the defensive wall to block Lee's free-kick from 20 yards. When it was retaken Rogers headed away Lee's shot.

A fine piece of skill by Steele took him away from Ryan and Lee in one movement. His square pass was then laid inside by Pitcher for Brooker to strike a low shot which Osborn stopped but could not hold.

Pitcher ran on to the rebound but Osborn smothered his follow up.

Albion introduced Virgo for Wicks in the centre of defence and Wycombe brought on Roberts, their £100,000 buy from Swansea, in place of Phelan upfront three minutes later.

Within seconds of Roberts coming on, Jones gifted Wycombe an equaliser. He underhit a backpass to Kuipers and Holligan nipped in to score.

Until Jones's blunder the visitors had not looked like scoring, but they almost struck again with a free-kick from wide on the left by Carroll which Kuipers had to tip over.

Lehmann should have restored Albion's lead on 73 minutes, but his free header from Pethick's cross was too close to Osborn.

Melton picked up the fifth booking of the game with 15 minutes remaining for a foul on Carroll close to the centre circle.

Both sides had chances to win it towards the end of normal time, Bulman firing an angled drive just wide for Wycombe and Lehmann glancing a header the wrong side of the far post from substitute McPhee's cross for Albion.

Kuipers came to Albion's rescue moments into extra time with a flying save from a Carroll shot which was bound for the top corner.

The Seagulls went straight up the other end to grab the winner 62 seconds into the extra period. Melton was the golden goal hero, rifling the ball home from Steele's pass.