Brighton's promotion bid in the Kent and Sussex Regional League looks to be all but over after a 2-0 defeat away to second placed Tulse Hill.
Will Nurse scored both goals from short corners but Brighton skipper Carlo Missirian felt his side were unlucky.
Missirian said: "The frustrating thing is that we completely outplayed them.
"They had three shots on goal and scored two of them. We had five or six short corners and four shots on goal, so we really should have won. We just could not get it in the net."
Missirian praised defender Luke Williams who kept Tulse Hill's free-scoring forward Mike Cullen at bay.
Brighton are now six points behind leaders Holcombe with four games to play.
Middleton and Bognor boosted their chances of survival with a 5-3 win over Sussex rivals Horsham.
Richard Warnett (2), Simon Morgan and Mark Pacey were on target as M&B raced into a 4-0 lead inside 20 minutes.
A rampant Middleton also hit the woodwork on a number of occasions, with Dave Clayton more unlucky than most.
A more even second half saw Brian Lock add to the home side's tally with Mark Ansell grabbing a hat-trick for Horsham.
Crawley lost ground on Horsham in the race for fourth place as they lost 2-1 at home to Folkestone.
The visitors had already had two goals disallowed before Crawley took the lead with a penalty flick from Terry Higgs.
Folkestone hit back with goals either side of half time and they held on for victory despite late Crawley pressure which saw Higgs and Stuart Donaldson go close.
Mid Sussex put up a brave display despite losing 3-1 away to leaders Holcombe.
The home side scored twice in the first 15 minutes but Mids fought back with Andy Green and James Buckeridge going close before Luke Hurle pulled a goal back just before half time.
It remained 2-1 until five minutes from time when Holcombe scored a third on the break.
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