Report by John Patrick Heeley

If Wigan Athletic needed a sign to show them how much work they needed to do if they were serious about making a challenge on the Division Two title then today's game was it.

An injury hit squad meant that Wigan manager Paul Jewell was restricted to 14 fit professionals and was forced to put trainee Greg Traynor on the bench alongside 17 year old goalkeeper Scott Tynan.

After a bright start, with a Lee McCulloch goal giving them the lead, they were completely outplayed and outclassed by newly promoted Brighton & Hove Albion.

Wigan were at sixes and sevens trying to cope with the home side's passing display and were restricted to a handful of half chances.

At a wet Withdean Stadium the early exchanges were pretty even with both sides passing the ball about well but nothing of real note until LEE McCULLOCH latched onto a defensive mistake by Nathan Jones on the right side of the area in the 17th minutes and with Brighton's keeper Michel Kuipers in no man's land the Scottish striker cheekily lobbed the Dutchman, the ball bouncing over the goal line by the far post.

Alan McLoughlin was brought into the fray on 29 minutes for Peter Kennedy, who has added to Wigan's long list of injured players.

The Seagulls eventually picked up the pace and had Wigan regularly on the back foot with cross after cross into the area looking for either of the two strikers, Bobby Zamora or summer signing Dirk Lehmann with his trademark ear plaster to cover his earrings.

Constant pressure finally paid off when Brighton were award two successive corners, the second highly dubious.

Brighton defender Paul Watson put the ball over for the first kick and Lehmann got his head to it putting his effort across the face of goal and out of play past the far post.

Referee Mark Cooper pointed to the corner flag saying that the ball had taken a deflection off a Wigan player on it's way out.

Watson again launched the kick into the middle of the box and in the scramble for the ball Wigan's Jason de Vos was adjudged to have brought down the former Hibs and Fulham striker Lehmann.

The West Midlands referee seemed to hesitate but eventually pointed to the spot.

Up stepped Brighton's wonder kid BOBBY ZAMORA who coolly put the ball to Derek Stillie's right with the Wigan keeper going the other way.

Within minutes Zamora almost doubled his tally when he ran onto a through ball but Derek Stillie got down well to snatch the ball from the 20-year-old's feet when it looked inevitable that the ball was going to end up in the back of the net.

Before the break Zamora could have done better but seemed to time his run wrong and failed to get on the end of a right wing, Gary Hart cross with the goal going begging.

Wigan didn't give Brighton much of a contest in the second half and a combination of luck and good work by Wigan's defence, marshalled by skipper Arjan de Zeeuw, kept them in the game.

Within seconds of the restart Brighton went extremely close to taking the lead when a low ball from Paul Watson found Gary Hart whose shot crashed off the bar.

Wigan were all over the place with the home side putting them under constant pressure.

Most of Brighton's moves seemed to go down the wings from Gary Hart and Paul Brooker, who were both having a good second half, with Wigan's De Zeeuw and De Vos generally putting paid to anything that came down the centre.

Wigan's best chance to take the advantage came from a rare corner which big Arjan De Zeeuw barged in to thunder a header narrowily over the bar.

An inspired 78th minute substitution by Brighton manager Micky Adams paid off,bringing on Lee Steele to replace the tiring Dirk Lehmann up front and the former Shrewsbury Town forward made an immediate impact.

Within a minute of the change Paul Brooker broke free down the left and slotted a square ball to LEE STEELE on the edge of the area who hit the back of the net past a helpless Stillie for the winner.

Wigan brought on Welsh striker Neil Roberts, replacing defender Paul Mitchell with 7 minutes remaining, in an attempt to pull something back from the game but despite Roberts' inspired running down the right the switch was all in vain.

Another low point in the game was the injury picked up by Andy Liddell who was forced to leave the field in stoppage time to be replaced by the young Greg Traynor with Liddell being helped across the field by physio Alex Cribley after the final whistle.

The Wigan team were booed off the park as they trudged across the field and down the makeshift tunnel by a section of the travelling Wigan fans and this ritual is getting all to popular these days.

It should be asked is the slating detrimental to the morale in the camp and shouldn't the fans be getting behind their team?

Manager Paul Jewell however mirrored the feelings of many of the Wigan fans who had braved the near 300 mile journey when he spoke to the media after the game.

Jewell told the Manchester Evening News: "They haven't got the desire that I'm looking for. Once we came under a bit of pressure we just couldn't cope with it. Certain things are kept in the dressing room, but I've told the players they need to hurt more. We've got fans travelling hundreds of miles for this and they deserve better. It's never nice to lose but there's ways to lose but this wasn't good enough."

And finally, I would like to add on a personal note that I hope that we never play at the Withdean Stadium again.

It cost a ridiculous £16.50 to gain access to a makeshift excuse for a football ground.

While the Brighton fans were friendly enough the hospitality offered by the club was way below what one would expect.

The vast majority of the ground was uncovered and when the rain came down the travelling support behind the goal were left to get soaked to say the least.

Plastic 'ponchos' were offered to the home crowd to keep them dry but the best the Wigan fans could hope for was a couple of paper towels to dry themselves and their wet seats.

£16.50 could get you into a number of Premiership ground and you'd expect more than a temporary, uncovered stand 50 yards from the pitch.