Albion 2, Huddersfield 1

Albion's promotion challenge is back on track.

Following up the rot-stopping victory at Blackburn with another at the Amex after a hat-trick of home defeats could be a big moment in the season.

Not big in scale. Just like the previous 12 wins, a single-goal margin was sufficient to lift Albion to 50 points and back up to third in the table, although Burnley or Derby will move above them tonight.

But massive in terms of restoring momentum and confidence, particularly at home and with the prospect of a return to strength in depth for the business end of the campaign.

The hope - it cannot be more than that in a division as unpredictable as the Championship - is that Albion's bad spell is behind them.

They reached a low point at Rotherham, where the winless league run stretched to seven games and where, as Chris Hughton remarked in his programme notes, "our commitment wasn't at the level needed to win."

The six points gained since, in contrasting conditions against opponents with very different styles, has rebuilt belief they are capable of coping with the variety of demands the Championship has to offer, as they demonstrated during that 21-match unbeaten start.

The remaining nine home games, including two more to follow now next month against Brentford and Bolton, will be crucial. Nine of the 13 wins have been at the Amex.

Albion were far from convincing against a side in the bottom half of the table but Anthony Knockaert added spark to the attack in an impressive home debut which included assists for both goals.

And, when Hughton looked behind him on the bench for game-changers in the second half, he was able to turn to James Wilson and Kazenga LuaLua to make the difference.

This is without another striker. Albion remain intent on beefing up their firepower in the final week of the transfer window.

Not forgetting either the boosts to defence, midfield and the strike force once Gordon Greer, Uwe Huenemeier, Gaetan Bong, Liam Rosenior and Sam Baldock have recovered from their injury problems.

Or the possibility of Steve Sidwell returning to the club, providing reassurance in an area of the squad - central midfield - where Albion are arguably most vulnerable.

The departure of Dale Stephens at half-time with a dead leg emphasised the fragility in that department. Andrew Crofts was an able enough deputy but what if Beram Kayal was out for any length of time?

Rohan Ince and Danny Holla rarely even make the squad nowadays. Jake Forster-Caskey is out on loan and recent Irish signing Ritchie Towell is unproven at Championship level.

A squad deep in quality, not just quantity, is a necessity when you are pushing for the Premier League and surrounded by Hull, Middlesbrough, Derby and Burnley.

Sidwell, not required by Stoke at Leicester and invited to the game by Bobby Zamora, must have been delighted to see his former Albion and Fulham chum on the scoresheet again.

After eclipsing Peter Ward's 81-goal mark for the club with an early tap-in at Blackburn in the snow, Zamora applied the finishing touch to one of the Seagulls' goals of the season.

He started it with a header inside his own box defending a corner. Kayal counter-attacked, fed Knockaert with a well-timed and weighted pass and there was Zamora, running the length of the pitch at the age of 35, to steer in an inviting cross with a left-foot volley into the corner.

As the relentless pattern of narrow wins implies, Albion remain nowhere near ruthless enough. Huddersfield, a team transformed under the Championship's version of Jurgen Klopp, gave them opportunities to extend the lead via their refreshing adventure.

Unlike many in Huddersfield's position, and often higher, they came to play under Klopp's former Borussia Dortmund accomplice David Wagner.

They were, as a consequence, open at the back. Albion, with Knockaert at the heart of everything, had several more chances in the opening 45 minutes to punish them on the counter, all of which were spurned by poor decision-making and straying offside.

They were punished in first half stoppage time. Nahki Wells had already missed one good chance to equalise when Harry Bunn, escaping the attention of the hampered Stephens, headed in Tommy Smith's right-wing cross.

Such lapses in defensive concentration continue to inhibit Albion. They had four clean sheets at the Amex by the end of October but have not kept one since then.

It threatened to be costly until Hughton acted boldly after Knockaert clipped a post from a free-kick.

He made his two other substitutions with a third of the contest still left. LuaLua came on for the painfully goal-starved Tomer Hemed, Wilson for the flagging Zamora.

Albion were soon back in front. Wilson, adjusting to reach a cross from Knockaert slightly behind him, cleverly headed the third goal of his loan spell from Manchester United.

LuaLua, on his first home appearance since mid-September, effectively secured the points by inducing two fouls from Smith in the space of 11 minutes with trademark bursts. The accompanying card accumulation - yellow, yellow, red - was inevitable.

Hughton said: "I certainly didn't think we were at our best in the first half but we scored the goal and had three or four really good opportunities on the counter-attack.

"If we had showed a little bit more intelligence we would have gone in with a bigger lead than we thought we were going to have, then we conceded at the worst time you can.

"We knew the game would open up and when they do it's the team that can show that little bit of quality.

"They are a young side that play a really good brand of football. They threatened a lot without having good chances. We didn't have anywhere near as many as I would have liked but the two goals are much-needed."

They clinched Albion's seventh 2-1 win of the season, five of which have been at the Amex. The goal difference disadvantage compared to the teams either side of them in the table is considerable but Hull, Middlesbrough, Burnley and Derby still have a fight on their hands.