Albion's 'Big Daddy' and 'Little Hinsh' are proving they can cope without Danny Cullip.

A goal-line clearance each by Guy Butters and Adam Hinshelwood helped the Seagulls to their first clean sheet away from home since the shock win at West Ham in mid-November.

More significantly, it was the first shut-out since captain Cullip left for Sheffield United shortly before Christmas.

Butters, 35, and Hinshelwood, 21, travel into training together and they are doing a pretty sound job in harness at the heart of Albion's rearguard.

Albion have conceded only three goals in four games and been beaten only once since the influential Cullip left. Many feared the defence would fall apart without him, but Butters and Hinshelwood have other ideas.

"Playing alongside Guy has been brilliant," said Hinshelwood. "He was probably our man of the match against Wolves.

"Defenders want to keep clean sheets. Danny has gone and he was a big player for us, but we want to move on. Now we have got our first clean sheet without him we want to take that on into the Watford game."

Butters and Hinshelwood did not have Adam Virgo for company to start with at the back, as they did at Wolves. Mark McGhee selected an unchanged side but reverted to his favoured 4-4-2 formation.

They rode their luck at times against Rangers, who were desperate to stop the rot after five straight defeats. The woodwork and Michel Kuipers also came to the rescue.

An eventful afternoon for Hinshelwood was just 25 seconds old when he deflected a low drive from Gareth Ainsworth, which forced Kuipers to change direction to save.

The contest was still in its infancy when Hinshelwood, like all good defenders in the right place at the right time, cleared Kevin Gallen's shot off the line from a cross by Leon Best to deny the Rangers stalwart his third goal in as many games against Albion.

Best, making his second start on loan from Southampton, really should have scored approaching the break when Danny Shittu's shot following a corner hit the base of a post and rebounded into his path.

Kuipers, having dived to his right to try to stop Shittu's effort, was scrambling back across his line when Best obligingly directed the ball back to him.

Butters, stationed on the left post, did his bit early in the second half when Paul Furlong's free-kick had Kuipers beaten.

Furlong's frustration at that point was nothing compared to the fate awaiting him in the closing minutes. Hinshelwood went down in a tussle for possession with Rangers' 14-goal veteran midway inside Albion territory.

It all looked fairly innocuous, but Premiership referee Andy D'Urso showed a straight red card to Furlong which his manager Ian Holloway later implied was for kicking out.

Hinshelwood could not shed any light on the reason for such a draconian punishment, although McGhee said: "The referee was very close and it looked to me as if he clearly saw what went on."

Rangers certainly had the lion's share of the chances, but Albion came close on a couple of occasions in the second half when Leon Knight replaced Mark McCammon up front.

Knight forced a good save from Chris Day with a shot from 20 yards and there could have been a fairytale finish for Charlie Oatway, a lifelong Rangers fan and Cullip's successor as skipper, but he headed wide from a Kerry Mayo corner two minutes from time.

Former Ranger Knight, involved in a number of previous controversies in clashes with his old club, was booed from the moment he came on and branded a "cheat" by home supporters when he went down clutching the side of his face following an aerial challenge with Ainsworth.

McGhee revealed: "I had planned before the game to take Mark McCammon off at half time, because Leon has been excellent when he has come on as a sub and I thought he might win us the game.

"If he is ambitious to play in front of 40 or 50 thousand people then he has got to be able to take a bit of stick.

"We had a few scares along the way, more scares than chances ourselves, but we came through. It was a big effort considering we had two games only a few days ago, so I was well pleased.

"We've been hard to beat all season and a tight unit. The difference this time was that we had a bit of the rub of the green when it looked like they were maybe going to get a goal."

Virgo, having started back up front with McCammon, ended the match at rightback to combat the aerial threat of Rangers sub Kevin McLeod after Alexi Nicolas replaced the injured Paul Reid.