Albion suffered a third successive defeat – and wasted a penalty – as their play-off hopes suffered another blow today.

Second-half counter-attack strikes from Albert Adomah and Danny Graham sent Middlesbrough to a 2-0 win at the Amex.

The Seagulls had chances of their own but the best of them, at 1-0, was blazed horribly off target by Leo Ulloa from the penalty spot.

To cap a bad day for Oscar Garcia’s men, Will Buckley limped off in the first half with what could be a hamstring problem.

Adomah struck from close range on 66 minutes after Graham had taken the ball off Gordon Greer and crossed low.

Ulloa fired the spot kick high and wide when Solly March was tripped looking to follow up after Dimitrios Konstantopoulos parried a Jesse Lingard shot.

The Argentinean stepped up as regular penalty taker David Lopez had already been substituted.

There was plenty of pressure from the hosts.

But they were punished by Graham’s calm angled finish on 86 minutes as Boro countered.

There were boos from some home fans at half-time - and even more at 90 minutes.

Things might have been different had Konstantopoulos, who impressed throughout, not produced a fabulous fingertip stop from David Lopez early on.