Jack Hinshelwood scored after 35 seconds on May 9, and Brighton & Hove Albion never let Wolverhampton Wanderers back into the match. The 21-year-old's early strike set a new club record for the fastest goal in Brighton's top-flight history in a 3-0 win at the Amex Stadium.
For Brighton, the goal mattered because it came with the kind of speed that changes the shape of a game before it has settled. Lewis Dunk added a second five minutes in, and Yankuba Minteh finished it off in the 86th minute, giving Brighton the club's first Premier League game with two goals inside the opening five minutes.
Hinshelwood, who has now made 66 Premier League appearances for Brighton and has 12 league goals, has been used by Fabian Hurzeler in a more advanced No. 10 role. That is a notable shift for a player who came through Brighton's academy primarily as a right-back and utility defender, and it helps explain why his timing in front of goal has become such a useful weapon.
The record had belonged to Alexis Mac Allister, whose 49-second goal in 2022 was Brighton's previous fastest Premier League strike. Hinshelwood beat that mark by 14 seconds, a small margin on paper but a decisive one in club terms, and it arrived in a late-season stretch when Brighton were still in the conversation for European qualification.
That is the sharp edge of this result: the record is now set, but the bigger question is whether Brighton can turn these fast starts into the points they need before the season closes. For now, Hinshelwood has given them a goal that will be remembered long after the whistle.
