But the 19-year-old has been warned experienced campaigner Steven Taylor is in line for a return for Saturday's home game against Peterborough United, having narrowly failed to prove his fitness in time for last night's game.

Kadar partnered fit-again Fabricio Coloccini in the centre of defence, and he hardly put a foot wrong, despite intense pressure from Kevin Blackwell's side.

And boss Chris Hughton – whose side went two points clear at the top of the Championship thanks to the hard-fought win – was delighted with their partnership.

"Coloccini's a good player, and when you think of the type of game it was, for him and Kadar to cope as well as they did was terrific," Hughton told the Gazette.

"I'm delighted to see Colo back, and hopefully the good news will be that Steven Taylor's back (for Peterborough).

"We were desperately hoping he was going to be back. We could have played him, but it would have been a real risk. In hindsight, now we've got the result, it was the right decision."

Hughton – whose team have leaked goals of late – was most pleased with the rearguard action of his team against a team he feels are capable of pushing up the league.

"I'm absolutely delighted with the result," added Hughton. "This is a club which at the start of the season would have been very much fancied for promotion – automatic or through the play offs.

"They're a side which is used to being up there. They had not far off their best side out, so we knew we were going to be up against it.

"We needed to put in a performance that was going to allow us to keep a clean sheet, and it was all about the goal.

"If they'd scored, it would have given them a lift and rocked the stadium, but we got the goal, and probably sat back a little bit too much in that last period.

"I thought we came out better in the second half. At that stage, I thought if anyone was going to get a goal, it was going to be us.

"I'm just pleased we're back to a clean sheet, and getting a result at a very tough place to get one."