Albion have been ordered by boss Steve Coppell to clean up their act.

He is worried about an absence of clean sheets and a cluster of cautions, which could have repercussions later in the season.

The Seagulls have managed one League shut-out so far. Coppell is happy with the strike rate of Leon Knight and Darius Henderson but alarmed by the pattern of leaking goals, especially from set pieces.

"My main concern at the moment is defending," he said. "That is five goals in two games now and I'm not happy about that.

"I feel we've just got to be tighter from certain situations. That was the trademark of the success two years ago.

"Leon has come in and accepted the responsibility of being the goalscoring leader, which is brilliant.

"Leon and Darius have got seven goals between them, which is what you have got to expect from your two strikers and what I wanted.

"What I want now is more clean sheets. We've only had one in six games in the League.

"As a unit we are not defending effectively. You look at the goals last Saturday against Swindon. One was from a long throw, which I think we can deal better with all the time.

"I've said right from the start of the season the number of goals we concede from set pieces will be vital.

"The first goal was a mistake in midfield, a bad pass from Jolly (Simon Rodger) and the next minute we are picking the ball out of our net.

"You could say that wasn't a defensive error, but we still had four fellas defending."

Another concern for Coppell is the number of bookings Albion have already accumulated, although he accepts some like Ben Roberts' for time-wasting at Plymouth have been very harsh.

"I just hope it is not going to be costly for us later on," Coppell said.

"You can ask any player here, all I'm on about is not giving away fouls, not getting involved with the referee, not getting punished because it's going to mount up.

"If you haven't got a big squad then you are going to pay for it. We will pay for it if we don't get ourselves sorted."

Nathan Jones completes his three-match ban at Colchester on Saturday.