Four fans were arrested when trouble broke out during Brighton and Hove Albion's away match against Wimbledon.

Stewards and police moved in to calm a disturbance at the Albion fans' end at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Trouble began after Wimbledon skipper Neil Shipperley scored a penalty in the 73rd minute of the match - the winning goal.

Some Albion fans tried to storm the pitch but police quickly moved into the crowd to bring fans under control.

There were almost 1,900 Seagulls supporters in a crowd of just 2,522.

The ground has a capacity of 26,400, but many Wimbledon fans are snubbing the Dons because of their proposed move to Milton Keynes.

About 1,750 tickets were sold by the Albion despite a boycott by the official supporters club which sympathises with its Wimbledon counterpart.

After the match a Seagulls' supporter said: "Police dived into the crowd when Brighton fans tried to get on to the pitch.

"The police then formed a cordon for the last bit of the match.

"There was mayhem for about 15 minutes."

Richard Hebbard, safety officer for Brighton and Hove Albion, said: "It's very rare to have trouble at away matches.

"We don't know the circumstances yet of what happened. We're waiting for a report. We have no trouble at home games at all. Any problems we do have are always at away games but it's not a great number if you take into account the number of supporters we have."

The Albion received criticism when the Home Office announced the number of the club's fans arrested at matches had increased by more than 50 per cent.

The list of offences included pitch invasions, violence and racist chanting. A total of 38 Albion fans were arrested at league games in 2001/02 compared with 25 in the 2000/01 season.

The club's record was the fifth worst in Division Two last season, which Albion won promotion from in May. Only Port Vale, Stoke, Cardiff and Bristol City had more fans arrested, according to Home Office minister John Denham.

A breakdown revealed one of the arrests was for violent disorder, seven for public disorder, three for racist chanting, seven for running on to the pitch, 12 for alcohol offences and eight for other miscellaneous offences.

Police arrested four men, all in their 20s, in connection with the disturbances on Saturday. Two were charged for assaulting police officers, one for being drunk and disorderly and another for affray.

They were released on bail and are due to appear at Croydon Magistrates Court on August 30.