Brighton 1 Brentford 0 A DISASTEROUS trip to Brighton on Tuesday saw relegation-threatened Brentford receive a record 11th dismissal for the season as they suffered a defeat which leaves them on the same 34 points total as fourth-from-bottom Chesterfield.

Debutant goalkeeper Stuart Nelson, picked in preference to Alan Julian, was sent off three minutes from the final whistle for bundling over Jake Robinson and midfielder Stuart Talbot had to take over in goal as manager Wally Downes had already used all three substitutes.

It was a night of great frustration for Downes. Not only did his team's depressing run stretch to five games without a win, but his teach-in on the Channel 4 TV programme Faking it failed to enable chess-playing bachelor Maximillion Devereaux to fool the experts into believing he was a football manager after a four-week crash course at Brentford.

Downes dropped wide man Tony Rougier despite his heroics in the 4-0 win over The Seagulls in October and the fact he was itching to play against Brighton with whom he was on loan from Reading last year.

Richard Carpenter kept Brighton on course for the play-offs by firing home a 25-yard drive in the 56th minute.

Stephen Evans had hit the bar for Brentford from a 30th minute free-kick, awarded when ex-Bee Danny Cullip fouled Ben May. But Brighton also hit the bar through Gary Hart.

Despite headers from Ben May and Michael Dobson mid-way through the second half, Albion clung on to the victory.

Brentford: Nelson; Somner, Sonko, Frampton (Kitamirike, 65mins); Dobson, Evans (Tabb, 76 mins), Hutchinson, Talbot, Bull; Wright (O'Connor, 76 mins), May.