Albion’s good form came to a crashing end today as they lost 2-0 at home to promotion chasers Bristol City. Two goals from Phil Jevons was enough for City as the Seagulls never really looked like scoring.

 

Brighton: Flinders, El-Abd, O’Cearuill, Butters (Elder 77), Mayo, Cox, Hammond, Ward (Fraser 63), Bertin, Savage, Gatting (Revell 46).
Subs Not Used: Sullivan, Elphick.
 
Sent Off: Fraser (82).
 
Booked: O’Cearuill.
 
Bristol City: Basso, Orr, Keogh, Carey, Fontaine, Betsy, Skuse, Noble (Woodman 85), Brian Wilson, Andrews (Jevons 27), Brooker (Smith 60).
Subs Not Used: Thomas, Johnson.
 
Booked: Noble.
 
Goals: Jevons 43, 84 pen.
 
Att: 6,280
 
Ref: M Riley (W Yorkshire).

Wilkins made two changes to the starting line up from Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Gillingham. Left back Kerry Mayo returned in the place of Sam Rents while Joe O’Cearuill took the place of the injured Joel Lynch.

The opening goal came just 2 minutes before half time with Phil Jevons grabbing a wonder goal after coming off the bench to replace Wayne Andrews after just 27 minutes. The former Yeovil town striker volley into the top corner from a Brian Wilson corner from just inside the penalty area.

The Seagulls best efforts of the half fell to on loan midfielder Nick Ward who tested City keeper Basso twice with long range efforts.

The second half was mostly Bristol City who enjoyed a majority of possession without creating too many chances. The Albion hardly registered a shot on target worthy of a mention.

The Seagulls were reduced to 10 men with just under 10 minutes remaining. Former Premiership referee Mike Riley judging that Tommy Fraser had deliberately stamped on Bristol City keeper Adriano Basso back when the keeper gathered a corner. It was a harsh decision and one that baffled Fraser and the Withdean faithful alike.

And the game was wrapped up two minutes later when Dean Hammond brought Brian Wilson down in the penalty area leaving Riley no choice but to point to the spot. Up stepped Jevons to send Scott Flinders the wrong way and put the game to bed..

Although it would be easy to blame the referee for the poor result the Seagulls never looked like scoring against a well drilled Bristol City side. The result sees Albion drop to 12th in the table one place behind next weeks opposition Crewe.

Player ratings
Â	Â	Â
Flinders	7/10	A more solid display from Flinders. In truth he didn’t have a great deal to do.
Mayo	7/10	Kerry defended really well but at times his distribution let him down.
O’Cearuill	6/10	Solid if not particularly impressive.
 Butters	7/10	Guy was once again a rock at the back.
El-Abd	7/10	Adam was clearly up for this one with some crunching tackles.
Cox	6/10	A fairly quite game from Cox. Somehow won the sponsors man of the match?
Ward	6/10	Showed some good touches going forward but gives the ball away far to easy at times.
Hammond	8/10	Man of the match Hammond was all over the place and never stopped running.
Bertin	7/10	Alexis is adjusting to the hustle and bustle of the English league well.
Gatting	4/10	A poor display from Gatting. Failed to get into the game and his touch was very poor.
Savage	6/10	Worked hard but was starved of decent service. Not his most effective game.
Â		Â
Subs:		Â
Revell	6/10	Hard working as normal but didn’t really trouble City.
Elder	5/10	Late sub and didn’t really get into the game.
Fraser	5/10	Harshly sent off.

Added on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 7:29 pm under Match reports by Wilka.