Here is the long and short of it. Coping without Danny Cullip and Adam Virgo was just too tall an order for one of the smaller sides in the Championship.

Albion won at West Ham with a goal from a set piece, scored by Guy Butters.

In the absence of both the captain and top scorer, Butters was the only real aerial presence in a vertically challenged line-up which succumbed this time to a goal from a set piece.

The Seagulls looked vulnerable throughout when defending corners. In the first half alone Graham Branch back-headed against the bar from one for Burnley, Ian Moore had a header blocked on the line by Paul Reid and Mo Camara glanced another header against a post from a cross which followed a corner.

Albion's Achilles heel finally cost them with 20 minutes left. Tony Grant's corner was headed up rather than out by Butters, Michel Kuipers flapped under pressure from Camara and the ball eventually fell for the impressive Robbie Blake to swivel and fire home his tenth of the season from close range.

That stunning victory over the Hammers carried a heavy price. It is difficult to envisage such chaos had Cullip, booked for the fifth time this season at Upton Park, and Virgo, who was red-carded, been playing instead of banned.

They are influential figures, not only because of their height and aerial power.

Cullip, apart from his qualities as a defender, is a vocal organiser of the rearguard. Albion have nobody else in the mould of what Virgo has become, a powerfully built target man.

Cullip is back for Saturday's examination at Ipswich, but manager Mark McGhee has to cope without Virgo for two more matches.

He would like to bring in Mark McCammon from Millwall for a month as a replacement. Albion's financial crisis is such that even such a short-term deal may not be feasible.

Asked about the lack of resources, McGhee admitted: "It's totally frustrating. These are games which wouldn't take very much for us to win. We've had a lot of games like that this season. We cannot do anything about it, apart from doing our best."

McGhee dealt with Virgo's unavailability with a revised role on the right flank for Leon Knight and Steve Claridge by himself up front on his home debut.

"I thought for half-an-hour we absolutely annihilated them for football," McGhee claimed, a slight exaggeration perhaps but an indication of how well Albion started the match.

Their passing was fluent, Knight was seeing plenty of the ball inside Burnley territory and they created chances.

Claridge, linking up well with his advancing midfielders, back-headed onto the roof of the net, Charlie Oatway forced Burnley keeper Brian Jensen into a fine save when he diverted Dan Harding's low drive goalwards and Knight fizzed an angled shot into the side netting.

Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Albion. Their failure, not for the first time this season, to score when in the ascendency proved expensive.

Burnley, starting 4-4-2 before switching to their successful away system of Blake alone up front, bossed the rest of the first half. Ironically, a goal from them looked less likely after the break until Blake, a jinking danger all afternoon, pounced.

The result was not unexpected. It would have taken a brave man before kick-off to predict anything other than a goalless draw or single-goal win for either side.

Only Rotherham and Stoke have scored fewer goals than Albion. Burnley, now beaten just twice in ten Championship outings away from Turf Moor, have let in a meagre six goals on their travels, three of them in one match at QPR.

Claridge said: "It was always going to be tight. We knew it was going to be difficult with big players in central areas missing, especially after the result we had at West Ham.

"The last thing you want is to lose anyone from that team or change anything, but the way it was there was very little else he (McGhee) could do.

"It was tough alone up front. For the first 20 minutes it was fine, because we had people getting up in support, but as they had their period of play we found ourselves going further and further back. At times I was possibly a bit isolated.

"They were a little bit more dangerous from dead balls than us, that was the only difference. In free play there wasn't a great deal in it."

Albion have now lost half of their matches at Withdean. That is a worry, but we mustn't get too hung up about the home form.

If you reverse the home and away results achieved so far this season, nobody would be bleating.

The Seagulls, like Burnley, have players better suited to what is expected of an away side. Darren Currie is the only player who can open up a defence with a pass.

Albion have 22 points as they approach the halfway stage. Three more from the next three matches, away to Ipswich, at home to Rotherham and at Millwall, will keep them on course for survival.

  • ALBION (4-5-1) Kuipers, Reid, Hinshelwood, Butters, Harding, Knight, Nicolas, Oatway, Carpenter, Currie, Claridge. Subs: Mayo for Harding (withdrawn 77), Hart for Nicolas (injured 75), Jones for Knight (withdrawn 82), Roberts, Hammond
  • Bookings: None
  • BURNLEY (4-4-2) Jensen; Duff, Cahill, Sinclair, Camara; Roche, Grant, O'Connor, Branch; Blake, Moore. Subs: O'Neill, Pilkington, Scott, Duffy, Sanokho
  • Bookings: Sinclair (90) foul
  • Scorer: Blake (70)
  • Fans' View: GARY BRINKHURST (Lewes) We should have got a goal in the first 20 minutes but it was pretty even after that and could have gone either way. The goal was mainly Kuipers' fault and he flapped at a few set-pieces. Knight didn't do too badly on the right, but Claridge didn't really have a lot of support. Currie played all right and has been quite consistent.

MATT GREEN (Hove) Mark McGhee should stick to 4-4-2 and play Claridge up front with Robinson or Knight. The fans want to back the team but the manager doesn't make it easy for us at times by his decisions, like playing one up front.

JOHN KIRKLAND (Crawley) We didn't play too badly and were unlucky, especially in the first five or ten minutes. If we had managed to get one early on, it would have been a different game. Burnley were quicker than us, which led to some frantic defending. Claridge played well but didn't get anything from a ref who appeared to have a blind spot against him.

JUNE PATTERSON (Burnley fan) We created almost all the clearcut chances, hit the woodwork twice and had one somehow cleared off the line, so I don't think Brighton can complain about the result at all. They looked pretty ordinary after the first 15 minutes or so and may well struggle to stay up. Hopefully they can get their new ground sorted out soon.