Football has a horrible habit of kicking you in the teeth when you least expect it. Just ask Bobby Zamora.

The Saturday before last at Withdean, Albion's teenage hitman was the hat-trick hero against Torquay.

On Saturday in Wales, the lanky Londoner became the misfiring villain.

With 20 minutes left the Seagulls were 1-0 up and in control when Zamora squandered the chance to secure Cardiff's first League defeat of the season.

He found himself in glorious isolation in the middle of the penalty area with time, probably too much time, to pick his spot from Paul Brooker's cross.

Instead he picked the large frame of Albion's former No. 1 Mark Walton, then compounded a glaring miss by hitting the rebound over the bar.

When Danny Hill cleverly clipped Cardiff undeservedly level four minutes later, Zamora, head in hands, was a picture of despair. Micky Adams immediately brought him off.

Zamora may not quite see it like this at the moment, but it is all part of his football education. He is, as Alan Cork says, a very good young player with a very big future.

That future includes learning to cope with the ups and downs he will inevitably encounter.

Corky, an old hand of course at the goalscoring lark, will I am sure put an arm around his apprentice. It would not surprise me if Zamora illuminates Albion's attack again at Blackpool tomorrow night.

His miss, like Kerry Mayo's goal-line clearance against Torquay, was unquestionably the turning point of a contest in which big-spending Cardiff, watched by their £300,000 buy from Rotherham Leo Fortune-West, were for the most part second-best to a steadily improving Albion side.

They suddenly look a totally different proposition to the team beaten so meekly by Kidderminster only a fortnight ago.

The confidence gained from hitting Torquay for six and giving Millwall such a Worthington Cup fright was retained at Ninian Park.

Adams decided on the same personel and tactics which worked so well at the New Den, with Gary Hart and Nathan Jones on the flanks, Zamora alone through the middle and skipper Paul Rogers encouraged to exploit the no man's land between midfield and forward.

As at Millwall, Paul Brooker was introduced in place of Rogers early in the second half.

Albion were already worth a lead by then. Walton displayed his strength by denying Hart in a one-on-one when Cardiff's fit-again captain Scott Young left a backpass woefully short.

Minutes later the Seagulls' No. 1 last season also exhibited his vulnerability to the high ball, a weakness Adams had clearly ordered his players to target.

Walton could not cope with Paul Watson's inswinging corner, which was headed off the line at the far post by Hill.

Hart felt even more hard done by in a lightning break, instigated by Zamora's surging run. He had a justifiable penalty claim for an untidy tackle by strong Scottish fullback Scott McCulloch rejected by referee Frazer Stretton.

Misfortune turned to frustration within two minutes of Brooker's arrival. At Millwall his cross set up Nathan Jones's equaliser and the pair so nearly combined again to put Albion in front.

Jones, a former Cardiff trainee, met Brooker's low cross with a first time shot on the turn with his supposedly weaker right foot. The underside of Walton's crossbar deprived the tricky midfielder of his fourth goal in three games.

The only surprise when the Seagulls' superiority was properly rewarded was the identity of the scorer. They had not found the net on their four previous visits to Ninian Park and Matthew Wicks had suffered a famine of similar proportions.

The central defender, 22 the previous day, popped up for a late birthday present at the near post in the form of an unchallenged glancing header from Watson's cross via Charlie Oatway's short corner.

Bobby Gould responded to Cardiff's deficit by bringing on flying teenager Robert Earnshaw as a third forward. A brilliant one-handed deflection by the previously under-employed Mark Cartwright on his return to Wales prevented Earnshaw equalising with a low effort.

Cartwright, making the penultimate appearance of his month's loan from Wrexham, was partly at fault though when Cardiff restored unwarranted parity.

He failed to punch clear a corner and was vainly retreating back towards his net when Hill found it with a pinpoint chip from 20 yards.

Both sides could have pinched the points in a stirring finish, but Cardiff came closest.

Cartwright was rooted to his line as Earnshaw's spectacular bicycyle kick ricocheted off the upright.

Poor Zamora would have been suicidal if that had gone in as well.