Glenn Murray leaves it late to send Brighton through at Middlesbrough

It has been quite a week for Glenn Murray. Fresh from his arrest, and subsequent release, on suspicion of involvement in £1.1m tax fraud, the Brighton striker stepped off the bench to earn Chris Hughton’s side a slightly undeserved FA Cup fifth-round passage.

A tie dominated by Middlesbrough and their winger Adama Traoré seemed destined for an unwanted replay when George Friend’s attempt to clear Marcus Suttner’s cross prefaced the ball cannoning on to Murray’s knee before flying past a wrong-footed Darren Randolph.

“Glenn’s been focused as normal,” said Hughton, straight-batting questions about a presumably difficult few days following Murray’s arrest, along with his wife, Stacey, last Tuesday. “I had no hesitation at all about playing him. We had a little bit of fortune but Glenn was in there at the right moment.”

Until Murray’s fluky winner, the game had felt strangely underwhelming. Bereft of both adrenaline and a sense of occasion, the contest was weakened by the reality that both sides clearly felt liberated from the all-consuming fear of dropping points that invariably turns their league performances into such nail-bitingly gripping affairs.

Perhaps appropriately, the banks of forbidding grey clouds gathering over the nearby Cleveland Hills created a distinctly gloomy atmosphere but at least Traoré tried his utmost to switch the lights back on for Boro.

Traoré’s pacy right-wing advances were the most compulsive aspect of a low-tempo match with Tim Krul, enjoying a rare outing in Brighton’s goal, having little to do but still looking convincing.

Indeed, the moment when the former Netherlands goalkeeper tipped Traoré’s shot on to a post raised the question as to whether Rafael Benítez was right to show him the door at Newcastle. On this evidence, he is fully recovered from a career interrupting cruciate ligament rupture and would surely walk into Benítez’s current team.

Clearly prioritising staying in the Premier League over the cup, Hughton had made seven changes. Considering key league games at Southampton on Wednesday and at home to West Ham on Saturday await who could blame him? With Boro desperate for promotionfrom the Championship, Pulis had a similar dilemma but made only three changes. With Ben Gibson and company comfortable in defence, Randoph was barely bothered in goal as the Teessiders duly looked the top tier team.

Krul not only denied Traoré but gathered Dani Ayala’s header and watched Patrick Bamford’s bicycle kick skim the bar while Martin Braithwaite showed his class in the No 10 role. When Pulis introduced his £15m striker Britt Assombalonga along with Stewart Downing it appeared there would only be one winner. Instead, Randolph was finally called to arms, doing well to save Jiri Skalak’s shot on the rebound after parrying Beram Kayal’s fierce drive.

Significantly at that point Traoré had been relocated to the left, a shift that, by diminishing the man of the match’s impact, arguably precipitated the power balance finally tilting.

Sure enough, once Hughton replaced the ineffective Tomer Hemed with Murray, Brighton raised their game.

The stage was set for Suttner’s cross, Friend’s wild swing of a boot and Murray’s fortuitous break.

“Lady luck hasn’t smiled on us,” said Pulis. “But there were a lot of positives. In the first half Traoré was fantastic, he’s got everything to be a top, top player.”