Albion must have thought they had already used up all their bad luck this season. They were wrong.

Alan Lee's long-range lob over the stranded Andy Petterson in the 20th minute was one of the fishiest match-winners you are ever likely to see.

To nearly everyone watching he looked yards offside, including the linesman who did a decent impersonation of one of those earmuffed workers parking a plane at Gatwick by vigorously waving his flag.

But the man in the middle thought otherwise.

He overruled his assistant, even though most of the players on both sides hadn't noticed and stopped in their tracks.

In the final analysis, referee Mike Pike was probably right, at least by the letter of the law.

In his opinion Albion's Richard Carpenter was the last player to touch the ball before Lee in a tackle with Darren Byfield.

What if Byfield got a touch? What if the linesman thought he had and flagged accordingly, or were his instructions from Pike to flag for offsides regardless?

What if Lee was already offside before Carpenter connected with the ball? Was he then active or inactive under the new interpretation of the offside law, which seems to have created even more confusion?

Of course, it doesn't matter a fig now. As Liam Brady once memorably put it on air to a local radio reporter, if my grandma had ***** she would be my grandad.

It was, nevertheless, another huge kick in the KP's for the depleted Seagulls who were guilty, if entirely understandably in the circumstances, of not playing to the whistle.

Rotherham manager Ronnie Moore admitted: "We would probably have been very disappointed if it had gone against us, but the linesman was very quick with the flag.

"Whether Alan Lee was offside or not, the ball has been passed back and the referee has played on. I think he actually did Alan a favour, because he thought it was offside and if he had looked up and seen the ref playing on he would probably have run on with it.

"I think he chipped it for the sake of chipping it, but it was one helluva finish."

For Albion manager Martin Hinshelwood it was another crushing moment. "The fella was five yards off," he protested. "The linesman's flag went up and I think everybody in the ground stopped.

"It was just a tackle by Richard. It's not as though he passed it to him. The linesman said he was offside, the ref said it came back off one of our players."

Republic of Ireland marksman Lee, later injured and replaced by former Albion forward Richie Barker, admitted thinking his seventh of the season would be disallowed.

"I saw the linesman flagging furiously and everyone seemed to stop. The keeper stopped, I stopped. I thought I'd best knock it in and I thought I could even be booked.

"There was a larger than normal roar from the crowd but nobody celebrated."

So there we have it, Albion's sorry season so far encapsulated by the cruel manner of their eighth League defeat in a row.

They tried their hearts out yet again. Danny Cullip led by example in a defence including the recalled Kerry Mayo.

New signing John Piercy made a satisfactory debut on the right side of midfield and then the left, but the Seagulls lacked a cutting edge once more. Overrun in the opening 25 minutes, by which time a rampant Rotherham might have been three up, they battled back after the break and nearly equalised during their best spell when Gary Hart's volley into the turf was pushed for a corner by Mike Pollitt.

You could not help thinking a forward line of Bobby Zamora, Paul Kitson and Graham Barrett would have produced a more positive result, perhaps even the end of the Millers' unbeaten home run.

It goes almost without saying, though, that there was yet another injury.

Nathan Jones, out for weeks from pre-season after hurting a medial ligament in his right knee, suffered an identical injury in the second half to his left knee.

Since Zamora sustained similar damage against Norwich on August 17, Albion have not taken a single point, which crystalises the impact of his absence.

Hinshelwood reflected: "We keep saying it week in and week out. We are having a right go, working very hard and being very competitive.

"We are lacking players perhaps in areas that would cause other sides problems. The youngsters have come in there, they have worked their socks off and we lose to a goal like that.

"The players keep coming back and that is the character of them. It's difficult for them because we keep being beaten and that has got to stop."

Moore said: "I don't think they can complain too much. I think we were the better side. For the first 25 minutes we were magnificent, but then it just became a scrappy and horrible game. There were a lot of balls knocked into the box but not many chances, but overall I think we deserved to win."

Hinshelwood and assistant Bob Booker were back up the M1 yesterday to watch tomorrow's opponents Ipswich at Stoke.

Their dedication knows no bounds, especially as the Worthington Cup represents an irritating irrelevance in Albion's current predicament.

They deserve a result as much as the players and will be praying for it against rock-bottom Grimsby, against whom Rotherham launched their remarkable revival from precisely the same position this time last season.

  • Albion (4-4-2): Petterson (gk) 7, Watson (rb) 7, Cullip (cd) 8, Butters (cd) 7, Marney (f) 7, Oatway (cm) 7, Carpenter (cm) 7, Jones (lm) 6, Piercy (rm) 7, Hart (f) 7, Mayo (lb) 6. Subs: Rogers for Piercy (withdrawn 76), Wilkinson for Jones (withdrawn 55), Packham, Melton, Hammond.
  • Bookings: Butters (8) foul.
  • Half-Time: Rotherham 1 Albion 0.
  • Attendance: 6,696.
  • Fan's View: Ian Miller (Worthing).

Sometimes things don't go your way but the Albion can have no real complaints about the goal, it was within the laws of the game.

I'm more miffed that an experienced keeper didn't play to the whistle.

Apart from that it was a steady performance. Cullip was, as always, a rock at the back and although it's easy to say, I think had Bobby played we would have got something from this game.

After ten games last season Rotherham were in exactly the same position as we are now with four points.

But they survived and that's what we can do, but only if the manager is given the correct support from the boardroom.