Southampton head coach George Burley insists the boardroom power struggle at St Mary's has not affected his players after they all but secured their Coca-Cola Championship survival at the expense of League One-bound Brighton.

Sir Clive Woodward was on the warpath this week after recent investor Leon Crouch questioned his role at the club and Rupert Lowe's chairmanship, but Burley shrugged off the controversy to watch his side grab their second successive victory and their first on the road since October.

Goals from Ricardo Fuller and Richard Chaplow secured a deserved 2-0 win for Saints and pushed Brighton to the foot of the table, and Burley was keen to accentuate the positives at the Withdean.

"Nothing has changed as far as we are concerned," said Burley. "It doesn't affect us at all, we are professionals.

"It was also important that the fans did not take their eye off the ball, and they didn't last week at home to Cardiff and they didn't again today."

Burley was relieved to put an end to any lingering threat of relegation with only Southampton's fourth win since he took over at St Mary's following Harry Redknapp's departure just before Christmas.

"This was an important game for us, it's a difficult place to come to and Brighton are fighting for their lives so it's a good three points away from home," he added.

"The first half was probably the best performance away from home since I've been here, and the second half was a battle on a difficult surface, so I am pleased with the performance.

"We had lots of possession and looked lively and I think we deserve some credit."

Burley also singled out his goalscorers for praise after Fuller bagged his third in two games since returning from a spell at Ipswich and on-loan West Brom midfielder Chaplow hit his first for the club.

"Ricardo Fuller has looked fit, sharp and strong since he came back to us and he deserved his place and got another goal.

"And Richard has had a number of chances to get off the mark - in fact he had a couple today - so it was nice for him to get on the scoresheet."

Brighton manager Mark McGhee refused to throw in the towel on his side's relegation battle, but admitted he got his tactics badly wrong as Saints tore into his side from the off.

McGhee once again went with three in attack, which paid off with a victory last week at Millwall, but his side were 1-0 down and floundering badly until the half-time interval.

"We set about playing 4-3-3 like we did at Millwall but it didn't work and they caused us problems," said McGhee, whose side remain seven points from safety with four games left.

"But we can take our second-half performance into our last four games, and if we can get something at Ipswich next week then we could be only be six, or even four, points behind Sheffield Wednesday when we play them here."

McGhee refused to point the finger of blame at young striker Colin Kazim-Richards, who missed a gilt-edged chance to drag Brighton level moments before Chaplow struck just after the hour mark.

"He'll take it in his stride," he added.

"It was a big chance and we needed to take it, but he's a young player and he'll learn from it. Our problem all season has been scoring goals."