JORDAN RHODES might have failed to make the scoresheet for the first time this season.
But six other Town players did as 10-man Brighton were put to the sword in thrilling style.
Antony Kay, Peter Clarke and Lee Novak, with a penalty, netted in the first half, when Brighton briefly levelled through former Town loan man Liam Dickinson.
Then, after Rhodes missed from the spot, Gary Roberts, Danny Drinkwater and Theo Robinson (twice) all beat Graeme Smith, on for red-carded keeper Michel Kuipers, to make it 15 goals in four games this season.
Town manager Lee Clark named an unchanged starting XI as his side tried to build on Saturday’s 3-1 win over Southampton and clinch a third straight victory in all competitions.
It meant that with Manchester United coach Warren Joyce watching from the Galpharm stands, on-loan Old Trafford midfielder Drinkwater again had to be satisfied with a place on the bench.
Brighton, playing a third successive away game and still seeking their first goal of the season, gave a debut to 19-year-old former Crystal Palace midfielder Jamie Smith.
The visitors, playing a 4-5-1 system with Dickinson up front, made the early running.
They forced three corners, all of them comfortably dealt with by the home defence, before Town went ahead in the 21st minute.
Brighton must have felt hard done by, but the goal illustrated the danger Town pose from both wings.
First Gary Roberts delivered a teasing ball from the left which centre-back Adam Virgo could only deflect across the face of his own goal.
Then Anthony Pilkington took possession and pumped in a cross from the right which Kay headed home to keeper Kuipers’ right.
Novak came close to increasing the lead with a 24th-minute shot before Brighton broke their scoring duck for 2009-10 with a deserved 34th-minute leveller, Dickinson rifling a right-foot shot into the roof of the net after Town failed to deal with a free-kick.
The visiting fans’ celebrations were soon cut short, however.
Just a minute later, Town were back in front thanks to the right foot of centre-back Clarke, who steered his first Town goal past Dutchman Kuipers from another Roberts cross.
The real drama was yet to come, however.
Town counter-attacked swiftly after keeper Alex Smithies held Tommy Elphick’s header and as Novak broke through and rounded Kuipers, the former Bristol Rovers stopper clipped his heels.
Having pointed to the penalty spot, Lancashire referee Neil Swarbrick had little option but to show the red card.
Kuipers reacted furiously and a posse of Brighton players surrounded the whistler, then substitute keeper Graeme Smith, making his debut after joining from Motherwell, was yellow carded for picking the ball off the spot and carrying it to the goalline.
A full four minutes had elapsed between foul and penalty kick, but Novak remained ice cool and sent Smith the wrong way to put Town 3-1 up.
Smith was put on the spot again eight minutes into the second half, and this time guessed right to parry Rhodes’ penalty after the striker was brought down by Andrew Whing.
But it wasn’t long before Town were exploiting their numerical superiority.
Goal No4 arrived in the 64th minute through last season’s 11-goal top scorer Roberts, who slotted his first of this campaign thanks to Theo Robinson’s unselfish pass.
Drinkwater, on for Kay, made it five with a well-struck shot from the edge of the penalty area in the 69th minute, then rapped a 72nd-minute effort against a post as Town shone.
And Robinson, who had replaced Novak, got in on the act in the 73rd minute, when he picked his spot after breaking down the right.
The former Watford man, who bagged seven goals in pre-season, added his second of the game and third of the campaign with an injury-time shot, and came agonisingly close to a hat trick when his close-range effort from.Roberts’ cross was somehow blocked by Elphick.
Not surprisingly, Town were given a standing ovation by their fans in an 11,269 crowd.
