THE mountain Albion still had to climb has now become the equivalent of scaling Everest and Kilimanjaro.

They were halfway up when they threw away their picks and ropes and were hit by a Swindon avalanche.

It has sent them tumbling all the way back down to base camp with neither time or, you suspect, the resolve to rescue their relegation expedition.

There was a touch of Captain Oates about Russell Slade after a defeat so damaging that Albion now have at least one heavy snow boot in League Two.

He watched his side, or rather the side he inherited, capitulate from 1-0 up at the break to 3-1 down within 13 minutes. They were not unlucky, just suicidal. “That’s as sick as I’ve felt for a long time,” Slade said. “We started off well enough and got the goal while we had a little bit of pressure.

“Unfortunately, seven minutes of madness just after half-time put paid to any glorious opportunity of climbing the table somewhat.

“When we are in a situation like we were, 1-0 up, we have got to learn to protect it. It’s lunacy giving away goals like that, it’s just not right.

“We have defended better in recent games but that seven minutes was appalling.”

Swindon, for the record, scored their goals in the space of 11 minutes but it was perfectly understandable for the flustered Slade to think they came even sooner. Either way it was a horribly quick decline which has left the Seagulls in a pretty hopeless position.

It is not just time they are running out of but also teams they are capable of catching.

Victory would have dragged Swindon back deep into trouble. Instead they have now sailed clear of them by nine points, all be it that Albion have a game in hand.

It looks like two from four with doomed Hereford and Cheltenham, and Albion are firm favourites to accompany them. They also have a game in hand on Crewe and Carlisle but are six points adrift of both.

Northampton have an extra match to play than the Seagulls, with a goal difference so superior that their cushion is effectively four points rather than three.

In his brief period in charge, Slade has established a game plan for the players but he cannot do anything about their frailty in the face of adversity.

Once they suffer a setback, like conceding the equaliser straight after half-time, the game plan goes out of the window and panic ensues.

This helps explain why Albion have leaked three or more goals in a match a remarkable 12 times this season.

They did so on Saturday for the third time under Slade. On the previous occasion they fell apart in the first half at Walsall following the 5-0 thrashing of Yeovil.

They lasted longer this time but the crumbling was even more dramatic after Dean Cox’s corner had been headed back towards the near post by Gary Dicker for Adam Virgo to volley in from close range.

The other Cox, Swindon’s free-scoring Simon, was anonymous in the opening 45 minutes, apart from a wastefully high early header.

He confessed before the game to hating playing at Withdean and he performed that way until bursting into life after the break to destroy Albion in tandem with his partner Billy Paynter.

A header upwards, not outwards, by Tommy Elphick from a free-kick, caused confusion and indecision among his colleagues on the edge of the six-yard box.

Paynter nodded down and Gordon Greer, Swindon’s accomplished captain, toe-poked the equaliser on the volley. Albion were behind three minutes later. Cox surged through the middle to strike a fierce shot which Michel Kuipers could only parry straight back out to Paynter, who gobbled up the rebound.

Slade responded with a double substitution, switching from the midfield diamond which had not sparkled in the way it did at Hereford four days earlier to an orthodox 4-4-2.

Diamond turned to dust as, eight minutes after taking the lead, Swindon extended it. Cox’s run was not tracked as he steered a volley past Kuipers at his near post from a cross by Anthony McNamee which carried no great pace or penetration. It was scandalously sloppy against a striker converting his 28th goal of the season.

Albion huffed and puffed after that but Gary Dicker’s well-placed volley from substitute Gary Hart’s cut-back was too little too late, leaving Slade dumbfounded that his half-time warning fell on deaf ears. “You say all the right things to keep them on their toes but we didn’t even take the kick-off right.

“It was obvious and they were under no illusions that Swindon were going to have a go at us. The 20 minutes was going to be massive to us and they hurt us in that period.

“We didn’t cope with their front two. We coped very well with them in the first half but they caused us a lot of problems and in that spell they scored three goals. Collectively, defensively we have got to take responsibility for that.”

The players Slade left behind at Huish Park evidently have a bit more about them. Amazingly, Yeovil have not let a goal in since their Withdean thrashing and are now as good as safe. Albion, sadly, look as good as down.

Albion (4-1-2-1-2): Kuipers; Whing, Virgo, Elphick, Borrowdale; Dicker; Loft, Fraser; Cox; Davies, Owusu. Subs: El-Abd for Loft (withdrawn 53), Hart for Fraser (withdrawn 53), Andrew for Owusu (withdrawn 77), McLeod, Sullivan.

Goals: Virgo (38), Dicker (90).

Yellow cards: Borrowdale (51) foul, Kuipers (53) unsporting behaviour, Hart (90) foul.

Swindon (4-4-2): P. Smith; Amankwaah, Ifil, Greer, Vincent; Robson-Kanu, Timlin, Tudur-Jones, McNamee; S. Cox, Paynter. Subs: Macklin for Robson-Kanu (withdrawn 90), Easton for Tudur-Jones (withdrawn 90), J. Smith, Brezovan, Lescinel.

Goals: Greer (47) Paynter (50), S. Cox (58).

Yellow cards: Tudur-Jones (33) foul, Timlin (45) foul, Paynter (51) unsporting behaviour, S. Cox (90) foul.