Brighton & Hove Albion boss Chris Hughton has backed his former club Norwich City for automatic promotion following the Canaries' 1-0 win over the Seagulls in their Championship clash.

Bradley Johnson scored the only goal of the match in the 62nd minute at the Amex Stadium to hand Alex Neil's men the three points, which moved them into third place in the Championship with six matches remaining in the campaign.

"They're a team that I felt would get promotion at the start of the season and they're a team that I think will get automatic promotion this season," Hughton told Sky Sports News.

"They've got the best team and I think they've got the best squad. It's a real disappointing feeling at the moment - Norwich for the first 20 minutes were excellent, we found it difficult to get near them, and they've got a lot of good footballers.

"After that I thought we really came into the game, got into some good positions - most of them falling to Joao [Teixeira] - and that's the margins in the game. The real bit of quality that they showed turned the game for them."

Brighton are 16th in the Championship, nine points clear of the relegation zone.