Albion have not been fair in the way they have made tickets available for the play-off final in Cardiff, according to some season ticket holders.

They were not given any priority unlike Bristol City, who only sold on Saturday to season ticket holders and club members with a limit of four per transaction.

One Albion diehard, who has already paid for next season as well, was most upset to find himself queuing up behind a bandwagon jumper from outside Sussex openly admitting he has not watched the Seagulls for years.

Another, Dick Smallwood, claimed: "Albion made a complete pig's ear of selling tickets on Saturday.

"Those who bought £46 tickets for cash were not sold tickets closest to the halfway line, as we were all led to believe. Instead we have tickets furthest from the halfway line."

Martin Perry, Albion's chief executive, said: "Prior to Saturday we had no way of assessing demand. If we had allowed one day for season ticket holders only, we would have had to have limited the number of tickets they bought.

"We could then have ended up in a Bolton Wanderers situation, where they limited supporters to two per season ticket and then had tickets left over.

"When we asked season ticket holders how many tickets they had bought on Saturday the majority said four or five, so they were buying tickets for non-season ticket holders as well and all wanted to sit together.

"This was a situation we anticipated from initial soundings from supporters prior to putting the tickets on sale.

"If we had operated a priority system, the season ticket holder and their colleagues and friends would have had to buy their tickets separately and sit elsewhere.

"The vast majority of season ticket holders have been very supportive of the way in which we handled it.

"We are always in a no-win situation in these circumstances. Our main concern is that all season ticket holders got a ticket and we have achieved this.

"On the first day of selling on Saturday we sold 20,000, which is a brilliant response from supporters and sends out a huge message to John Prescott.

"It is also remarkable that we were able to mount an operation in just 24 hours to cope with this level of demand. Our staff performed brilliantly."