Uttered a cry with light heart, albeit in need (7)

I believe the answer is:

neighed

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'uttered a cry' is the definition.
'neighed' can be an answer for 'uttered' (neighing is a kind of uttering). I'm not certain of the 'a cry' bit.

'light heart albeit in need' is the wordplay.
'light' becomes 'ig' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'heart' indicates the central letters.
'albeit' becomes 'tho''.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
The middle of 'tho' is 'h'.
'ig'+'h'='igh'
'igh' placed inside 'need' is 'NEIGHED'.

'with' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for neighed that I've seen before include "sounded "horsey"" , "Cried" , "Made a sound like a horse" , "Whinnied" , "Heeding (anag)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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