Just as Albion's relentless run of bad luck was about to continue, a Scotsman turned the relegation tide.

It wasn't, for once, manager Mark McGhee with an inspired substitution or tactical adjustment.

It wasn't Adam Virgo with another goal following his latest call-up to the Scotland Future squad.

Leicester's Stephen Hughes was the Seagulls' celtic saviour, with what must surely rank as the daftest dismissal of the season.

The former Glasgow Rangers midfielder was booked at the start of the second half for kicking the ball away when Albion were awarded a free-kick inside the centre circle.

Incredibly, he repeated the offence in the 62nd minute after he had been caught offside, leaving referee Mike Thorpe no choice other than to send him off.

Albion made the extra man count ten minutes from time with their most important goal of the season. The Leicester defence failed to deal with Dan Harding's cross and Paul Reid swivelled to level with a left-foot drive from 15 yards, condemning the visitors to their 19th Championship deadlock.

The significance of Hughes' two moments of madness and Reid's resulting point-saver cannot be over-stated. Albion's hopes of avoiding relegation could have been dealt a fatal blow by a seventh straight defeat.

Damage to morale after such a stirring and industrious display would have been incalculable.

With the Withdean crowd invigorated by The Argus Make Some Noise campaign, the players responded with a much-improved performance.

Led by captain Charlie Oatway's committed example, they ran themselves into the ground, particularly in a vibrant first half, only for their penalty nightmares to haunt them yet again.

David Connolly's 33rd-minute spot-kick, awarded against on-loan Millwall defender Joe Dolan for handball on his home debut, was only part of the story. Albion had four penalty appeals of their own rejected by Thorpe.

The Suffolk official justifiably sent-off Oatway for kicking an opponent in the closing stages of Albion's 1-1 draw at Leeds in January.

On this occasion Oatway and his colleagues had good reason to question his judgement. Dolan was penalised for his unorthodox interception of a pass from Mark de Vries through to Danny Tiatto. But was it hand to ball or ball to hand?

Leicester boss Craig Levein had no doubts. It was a blatant handball, he said. The ref was five yards away, Mark played the ball into Danny's path and the guy stuck his hand out and deliberately knocked the ball away.

Levein's version of events was confirmed by Thorpe who, to his credit, was prepared to discuss his series of controversial decisions with the media. I was five yards away and it was movement of the hand, he said.

Unbelievably, it was the seventh penalty awarded against Albion in ten matches and the third in a row.

Panic defending or horrendous misfortune?

The truth probably lies somewhere in-between.

The frustration of the Albion players was compounded when Mark McCammon and a number of his team-mates were convinced his header from a corner early in the second half was diverted by a Leicester hand. The big target man had already had two penalty appeals turned down at the start and finish of the first half, for challenges by Greek defender Nikos Dabizas and goalkeeper Ian Walker.

A further claim followed shortly after Hughes' early bath, when livelyyoung substitute Jake Robinson was tackled by Alan Maybury, but the ex- Hearts defender won the ball cleanly.

A philosophical McGhee said: It's not been going for us, so what can you do about it? We just have to keep going and keep hoping that one of these days the referee is going to see it our way.

A draw was the least we deserved. Again a penalty went against us, but maybe the break of having an extra man when they had a man sent-off made a difference, so we have got to maybe take that as a change in our fortune.

Our pressure was good and our tempo was very good. Some of our play was decent and we didn't give them time to rest. The difference between us winning comfortbaly and it finishing the way it did, scrambling for a result, was just that little bit of quality.

When we had opportunities to cross, the quality wasn't good enough. You cannot fault the effort, we just need to find that little bit more precision when we get into the last third.

Leon Knight might have provided that, but last season's leading scorer, together with Gary Hart, will be completing a two-match ban at Burnley on Saturday.

Adam El-Abd, axed from the squad for the Coventry a game a week earlier after he had been fined by police for being drunk and disorderly in a Brighton seafront nightclub, will be hoping to retain his place at Turf Moor. He did a pretty good marking job on the dangerous Connolly as part of a five-man defence.

El-Abd's fortunes have taken a dramatic turn for the better. Hopefully the same applies to Albion.

ALBION (5-3-2); Blayney 7; Reid 7, El-Abd 7, Dolan 6, Butters 7, Harding 7; Oatway 8,Carpenter 7, Hammond 6; Virgo 7, McCammon 6. Subs: Jones for Hammond (withdrawn 60), Robinson for Dolan (withdrawn 60), McPhee for McCammon (withdrawn 74), Nicolas,Shaaban.

Albion bookings: None.

Albion scorer: Reid.

LEICESTER (4-4-2) Walker; McCarthy, Dabizas, Dublin, Maybury; Hughes, Williams, Gudjonsson, Tiatto; de Vries, Connolly. Subs: Nalis for Tiatto (withdrawn 73), Stewart, Moore, Kenton, Hirschfeld.

Leicester bookings: de Vries (64) unsporting behaviour, Tiatto (71) foul, McCarthy (75) foul, Connolly (78) unsporting behaviour.

Sent off: Hughes (50 and 62) unsporting behaviour