ALBION substitute Jamie Moralee faces a heavy fine and a three-match ban after being sent off without touching the ball.

He had only been on for a minute when he lashed out at Scunthorpe's hat-trick hero John Eyre in the closing stages of Saturday's 3-1 defeat.

The Argus revealed last week that Albion have one of the worst disciplinary records in the country.

Moralee's red card is the sinking Seagulls' seventh this season and boss Jeff Wood has vowed to hit him hard.

"I was defending the players last week, but there is no defence for Jamie," said Wood. "We will deal with it in-house and it will be as severe as we can make it."

Moralee, who was unavailable for comment, now misses the matches at Hartlepool on Saturday week, at home to Barnet on March 27 and away to Mansfield on April 3.

Wood blamed 'schoolboy errors' for Albion's fourth defeat on the trot.

Eyre took advantage of slack defending to lob Scunthorpe into an early lead. He added a penalty, awarded for a foul by Paul Sturgess, then raced clear to complete his hat-trick in stoppage time once Moralee had been sent-off.

Moralee's fellow substitute Darragh Ryan replied midway through the second half, shortly after replacing Lawrence Davies.

Amazingly Albion are still 13th and only three points outside the play-offs because the three teams above them, Exeter, Halifax and Swansea, also lost.

But they will probably be without Ross Johnson for tomorrow night's home game against next-to-top Cardiff. He went off with a back spasm.

Said Wood: "We have to remedy the sloppy goals we are giving away.

"There are still a lot of points to play for, but we have to build a run off the back of a clean sheet."

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