Seagulls are mean

The Seagulls rediscovered their mean streak at run-down Bloomfield Road.

Their first clean sheet of the campaign was the foundation for the first away win of the season.

They played much better than this without winning at Millwall and Cardiff.

Manager Micky Adams was right when he said:"I don't think there was any comparison. We played some tremendously fluent football in those two games.

"This was scrappy. The conditions didn't help. There was a swirling wind and I think Blackpool will still be up there."

Those remarks mask a quiet satisfaction. Adams knows these are the sort of victories which earn you promotion.

Blackpool's crumbling home is only open on two sides and has only three permanent floodlights. It's a disgrace to the memory of Sir Stanley Matthews.

That won't matter one jot to the healthy contingent of Albion fans who defied the fuel crisis to be there. They saw a team with plenty of petrol in the tank, defending tidily in their scruffy surroundings against a wave of tangerine attacks in the second half.

At the heart of the rearguard action, both in a positional and emotional sense, were Danny Cullip and Matthew Wicks.

Cullip is back to his dependable best, while Wicks has been outstanding alongside him in the last three matches after that shaky debut against Torquay.

Andy Crosby, available again following a three-match ban and on the bench last night, is going to have to work hard to win back his place.

Adams says the transfer-listing of Darren Carr and, to a lesser extent, the departure of teenager Ben Andrews, are unrelated to Wicks' situation.

He is not yet halfway through his month on loan from Peterborough, but a trimming of the wage bill can only assist his hopes of a permanent move.

A more pressing priority is resolving Mark Cartwright's future. The goalkeeper's loan spell from Wrexham is up now and Adams wants to keep him, ideally for at least another month or the rest of the season.

He not surprisingly named the same side and formation for the third match running last night.The difference this time was that Albion didn't carve out anything like the number of chances they created at Millwall and Cardiff, but their finishing was clinical.

Paul Rogers popped up with useful goals several times last season. The skipper's place is no longer guaranteed, but he showed he hasn't lost that knack.

Rogers latched onto a poor headed clearance by Ian Hughes to rifle a right-foot volley low into the corner from 12 yards.

There is no such thing as a bad time to score a goal. Immediately before the break is, however, an especially good moment.

Adams revealed afterwards that he was just writing in his notes the need for Gary Hart to be more positive. Hart must have somehow sensed what he was scribbling down.

Having struggled to shrug off the close attentions of Tommy Jaszczun on the right flank, he suddenly found himself in more familiar central territory.

He made room for himself to fire a right-foot short from 20 yards beyond the diving Phil Barnes into the opposite corner of the net found with similar precision by Rogers 12 minutes earlier.

It was, almost literally, the last kick of the half, a real boost for the Seagulls, a real kick in the teeth for their hosts.

You often hear managers say 2-0 is a dangerous lead. The second half illustrated what they mean.

Blackpool, with nothing to lose, press forward pretty relentlessly. Albion relied on diligence at the back and hitting them on the break.

At Millwall and Cardiff, Adams replaced Rogers with Paul Brooker early in the second half. They were not ahead though in those instances.

The sensible call this time was to concentrate more on preventing Blackpool which would have changed the complexion of the contest, rather than killing it with a third of their own.

Steve Bushell should have done better when he shot into the side netting, Nathan Jones doing just enough to put the midfielder off.

Cartwright was so well protected by the men in front of him that he only had to make a couple of serious saves.

One, to foil Phil Clarkson from a near-impossible angle, was fairly straightforward. The other, just after the hour, was crucial.

Brett Ormerod, Blackpool's lively front man, cut inside Wicks but Cartwright blocked his shot with his legs.

Cullip marshalled John Murphy, the home team's top scorer, superbly. The experienced Paul Simpson, an intermittent threat throughout, did beat Cartwright from 20 yards with five minutes left, but the post saved Albion from a tense finish.