The match video was delivered to Albion's dressing room shortly after their most comprehensive League defeat of the season.

It will make pretty grim viewing, but there is no need to dwell too long over the contents of a frenzied contest.

Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and accept you were beaten by the better side on the day.

That was the case for the Seagulls at the impressive JJB Stadium. A couple of key penalty decisions went against them and they were second-best in every department to a Wigan team at last performing like the play-off contenders they have been in each of the previous three seasons.

On-loan Simon Royce, Albion's last line of defence, put the end of a club record ten unbeaten away League games into perspective when he declared: "They've had a brilliant run and it had to happen some time."

It would be foolish to under-estimate the mental resolve of Albion's squad.

What matters now is not what happens at Withdean tomorrow night, nice though an overdue FA Cup run would be, but on Saturday against next-to-bottom Cambridge United and in the hectic burst of Second Division fixtures which follow.

Albion responded to their first League defeat of the season, at Northampton, with four straight wins and an unbeaten six-match run.

The second at home to Brentford, exacerbated days later by Micky Adams' departure to Leicester, was the forerunner to an undefeated dozen under caretaker Bob Booker and Peter Taylor. It would be dangerous to write them off after one setback.

Only Southampton in the Worthington Cup have done to Albion this season what Wigan did to them on Saturday.

The Latics' line-up was crammed with players of Premier experience in England or Scotland. That quality shone through once, crucially, they had seized an early lead.

Ask any of the locals and they will tell you that is the secret to Paul Jewell's Jekyll and Hyde side. It is precisely what happened when they stuffed Stoke 6-1.

Frustrate them for half-an-hour and their fans, small in number but high in volume, will soon be on their backs.

Albion did better than that, for the first five minutes.

They ripped straight into Wigan, but the contest was effectively over inside its opening quarter as Andy Liddell struck twice.

The former Barnsley striker, given room to manoeuvre by his partner Lee McCulloch in the ninth minute, cut inside Danny Cullip to drill a low drive past Royce.

Ten minutes later came the real turning point. The outstanding Gary Teale, who gave Kerry Mayo a torrid afternoon on his comeback from injury, chipped a ball over the top and McCulloch tumbled as Cullip tracked him from behind.

Penalty said ref Peter Walton, offside and no contact claimed Taylor. Cullip complained to the linesman, while several of his colleagues protested to Walton, all inevitably to no avail.

Royce saved a spot-kick at Blackpool, but Liddell calmly sent him the wrong way.

Kevin Keegan, the Manchester City manager and ex-England coach, was there to watch Bobby Zamora, but the young hotshot was spectacularly upstaged by Liddell.

He raced clear to complete his first hat-trick for the club late on when Richard Carpenter lost possession, leaving Albion outnumbered at the back.

Having drawn at Bristol City and despatched the Seagulls, it will be facinating to see how Wigan do in their next three matches against the other three teams in the top five, Brentford, Reading and Stoke.

Nobody could doubt the validity of their victory. Royce was Albion's man of the match.

The hired Leicester custodian made a brilliant deflection from a Liddell header before he had even launched his scoring spree.

Royce also foiled the matchwinner twice more plus substitute Neil Roberts in the closing stages.

"Rolls" resembled a battered old banger by the finish. He hurt his left foot in the first half when hooking clear from McCulloch, then was left groggy after toppling over the back of the same player as he gathered a cross.

"I nearly came off at half time," Royce revealed. "His foot was a bit high for the first one and I didn't know much about the second one.

"The lads said he backed into me, which is classed as a foul. He had already been booked anyway, but the ref was never going to give it."

Albion were upset too when, ten minutes after a penalty doubled their deficit, they felt they should have been awarded one themselves.

Walton decided a tackle by Jason De Vos on the fit-again Gary Hart was worthy of a booking for the big Canadian stopper and a free-kick on the very brink of the Wigan box. This launched a spate of five yellow cards in the space of ten minutes, three of them for Wigan and two expensive ones for Albion.

Simon Morgan was eventually booked after the next break in play for an earlier tug at the elusive Liddell. Hart's foul on Steve McMillan moments later means he is also now suspended for one match.

Taylor would probably prefer them to be available for Cardiff's visit at the end of the month and missing from the FA Cup, which will only happen if Albion draw or win against Preston tomorrow night.