Albion discovered to their cost again the difference between the dominating top two and the rest of the teams in the Championship.

When you are slack against Reading and Sheffield United you are ruthlessly punished.

At Reading last month the Seagulls made Steve Coppell's runaway leaders look distinctly ordinary for half-an-hour before conceding a soft goal, compounded by a debut red card for Gary Elphick and harsh penalty, on their way to a 5-1 defeat.

At Bramall Lane on Saturday second-placed United struggled badly in a forgettable first half, only for Albion to then contribute to their own downfall.

The opening two goals, by Phil Jagielka and Paul Ifill, were expertly taken but aided by poor defending.

For 53 minutes there was nothing between two sides who could be two divisions apart next season. Then Chris Armstrong was allowed by Paul Reid to cut inside far too easily.

Armstrong is all left-footed and, although his cross was perhaps not quite where he intended it, Jagielka swept it in with a first-time shot from 12 yards.

Albion ought to have known about the danger of letting Jagielka loose inside the box. The central midfielder, standing in as skipper with Chris Morgan surprisingly dropped to the bench, scored the only goal when the teams met at Withdean in September.

The Seagulls certainly know all about the threat of Ifill, the Brighton-born right winger who thrived under manager Mark McGhee at Millwall.

Ifill tormented Dan Harding when he scored against his home city club at The New Den last season. This time Joel Lynch was his unfortunate victim in the 64th minute.

The 18-year-old leftback, making only his third senior start, was caught in possession by Ifill, who was then left clean through.

After a nightmare first half, in which the home fans were on his back, Ifill must have been tempted to square the ball to give Steve Kabba a simple tap-in.

Instead, like most wingers inspiring and infuriating in equal measure, he clipped a clever finish befitting an £800,000 purchase over the advancing Michel Kuipers from an unkind angle.

Lynch's replacement by youth team-mate Joe Gatting four minutes later had more to do with Albion trying to find a way back into the match than any responsibility for the deficit doubling.

Kuipers did not help the youngster by giving him the ball in an area where he did not want it and Ifill was full of sympathy.

"Joel was unlucky," he said. "He should probably have put his foot through it but I don't know if he even saw me coming and by the time he did I'd made the tackle.

"He shouldn't have had the ball. Michel should have cleared it, I think he knows that himself.

"Joel's a young lad, so it's hard for him. I thought he did really well. I think that was his only mistake and he's a big, strong lad."

Kuipers' performance encapsulated why Wayne Henderson, on the bench on Saturday, is back permanently following his successful loan spell from Aston Villa earlier in the season.

Saves from Kabba, Jagielka, Ifill and Brian Deane's late header emphasised what a super shot-stopper the big Dutchman is but the speed and accuracy of his distribution - one of Henderson's strong points - is still a concern for McGhee.

Kuipers could do nothing about the goal which rounded off the Blades' victory in the 75th minute, Kabba putting Michael Tonge clean through the middle to calmly tuck away his first of the season.

Albion, hard-working and spirited as ever, were rewarded for their endeavours with another eyecatching contribution from Colin Kazim-Richards seven minutes from the end.

Brought on in place of Reid once the Seagulls had fallen behind, he looked sharp and hungry and his angled consolation from 12 yards was crisply struck past Paddy Kenny's right hand.

The manner of Albion''s fourth straight away defeat made it a disappointing return to Bramall Lane for McGhee's assistant, Bob Booker.

"We came with a game plan and it was working," said the former Blades legend. "We quietened the crowd and played some decent football.

"We would possibly have liked to have caught them a bit more on the counter-attack but we created a couple of wee chances, we were nice and patient and had a good shape. The players looked confident and we felt confident on the sidelines.

"The first 20 minutes of the second half were going to be massively important. We didn't defend the first goal at all well after some great defending in the first half as a collective unit.

"That led to the sloppyness of the second goal and after that it was always going to be uphill. It was just individual concentration and, at this level, that's what we are talking about.

"We know we can play good football, we know we are short of a couple of strikers, but we still felt we had a goal in us."

The outcome might have been different if Gary Hart had made more of a free early header at the near post from a cross by his makeshift strike partner Seb Carole but Albion's battle for Championship survival is not going to be won or lost at places like Bramall Lane.

They have hugely important matches next month against Leicester and Crewe.

Prior to that Sheffield can repay the favour done to them by Leeds' recent defeat at Withdean by clinching the signing of Ade Akinbiyi from Burnley before the Clarets' visit in eight days time.

  • Albion (4-4-2): Kuipers 7; El-Abd 7, McShane 7, Butters 8, Lynch 6; Reid 6, Carpenter 7, Hammond 7, Frutos 6; Hart 6, Carole 7. Subs: Kazim-Richards 7 for Reid (withdrawn 59), Gatting for Lynch (withdrawn 68), Mayo for Frutos (withdrawn 77), Robinson, Henderson.
  • Sheffield Utd (4-4-2): Kenny; Geary, Bromby, Short, Unsworth; Ifill, Jagielka, Tonge, Armstrong; Shipperley, Kabba. Subs: Deane for Shipperley (withdrawn 81), Quinn for Unsworth (withdrawn 82), Flitcroft for Kabba (withdrawn 88), Morgan, Montgomery.
  • Matchfacts
  • - Albion booking: Frutos (66) foul.

- United booking: Geary (58) foul.

- Albion scorer: Kazim-Richards (83).

- United Scorers: Jagielka (53), Ifill (64), Tonge (75).