It is official. Even the management concede now that Albion are embroiled in a relegation battle.

Assistant Dean White, his boss confined to bed by flu, said as much after a devastating defeat.

"The League doesn't lie," White admitted and Albion are just one more bad result away from falling into the drop zone.

The next fortnight is going to be critical. Forget the chance of returning to the Millennium Stadium in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy - that is an irrelevance in the current circumstances.

The Seagulls have two more League One matches to stop the rot before the month is out, at Chesterfield next Saturday and at home to Port Vale.

Even more importantly than that, the squad needs to be strengthened by the time Rotherham come calling at the beginning of February.

The transfer window clock is ticking. White said: "We've identified our targets and between us we have got to make sure we get at least one or two of them.

"It's not easy because everyone wants good players but we have got to make sure we get the players we need to help the players that are here."

That reference to "between us" presumably includes the chairman. Dick Knight must find the necessary funds from somewhere, like the FA Cup windfall from the trip to West Ham.

Rookie loan signings from his beloved Arsenal are all very well. Teenager Joe O'Cearuill looked good at right-back on his home debut but Coventry loan signing Andrew Whing was the player Dean Wilkins really wanted to fill that position.

The suspicion is that Albion could have landed him if Knight had made a better offer to his streetwise former manager Micky Adams.

White revealed last week that up to three experienced players are being targeted.

Hopefully one of them is the type of target man Wilkins' predecessor Mark McGhee was desperate to sign for the Seagulls in the Championship.

Players and management alike, seeking a shred of comfort, hark back to the five-match losing streak earlier in Wilkins' reign, which they snapped out of impressively.

The current run already stretches one game further and there is another significant difference.

Soft goals are being given away, just as they were in September and half of October, but Albion are also painfully short of punch and nous at the other end of the pitch.

The goals have dried up for Jake Robinson and Alex Revell, who like Wilkins missed the match through illness.

Albion have not scored since Joe Gatting gave them the lead against Carlisle almost five-and-a-half playing hours ago.

Gatting and recent signing Nathan Elder, who nearly equalised on his debut after coming on as a substitute, are ones for the future, not the present. An inexperienced attack is crying out for another Gifton Noel-Williams.

The defensive frailties show no sign of relenting either. Millwall's winner midway through the first half was, as White remarked, "schoolboy stuff".

Paul Robinson, the visitors' reliable captain, hit the kind of long, hopeful ball down a channel from deep inside his own half which you expect of a no-nonsense centre half.

It should have been dealt with but Joel Lynch made the first mistake by getting the wrong side of Darren Byfield.

He was left clear of a square back four when the ball sailed over Lynch's head and hesitation by Wayne Henderson in coming off his line made Byfield's mind up. A clinical lob registered his eighth goal of the season.

Cue the sadly predictable criticism of Henderson from sections of supporters and hero-worship of his rival Michel Kuipers when the Dutchman appeared on the pitch with the rest of the substitutes at half-time.

Yes, Henderson was partly at fault on this occasion but his persistent detractors are undermining his confidence and are in danger of driving a promising young goalkeeper out of the club. Rarely has an Albion player been so badly treated by supporters.

Millwall invited Albion to try and break them down for the rest of the match. Hard as they tried, and for all their possession, they rarely looked like equalising.

Just before half-time Adam El-Abd contrived to drag a shot from a tight angle out for a throw-in when well-placed and Dean Cox could only find the side netting when Danny Senda miscontrolled inside his own area. After the break, Robinson, Albion's liveliest forward, went close from long range and a double substitution by White and coach Ian Chapman nearly delivered salvation with nine minutes left.

Tommy Fraser, on for Richard Carpenter, provided a teasing cross which the powerful Elder, replacing Gatting, met with a downward header.

Lenny Pidgeley scrambled to keep it out by the foot of the far post, preserving Millwall's third League win on the trot and closing the gap between the teams to a point with a game in hand.

It was just about the only time Pidgeley had to get his hands dirty as Albion became the first side to fail to score against the Lions in League One this season.

That, together with the failure to keep out the opposition at Withdean since Gillingham were the first to visit back in August, is a damning indictement of Albion's difficulties in both penalty areas.

We wait, more in hope than expectation, for the experienced striker and other signings who could help turn the tide.

ALBION (4-4-2):
Wayne Henderson (GK), Joe O'Cearuill (RB), Joel Lynch (CB), Guy Butters (CB), Sam Rents (LB), Gary Hart (RM), Richard Carpenter (CM), Adam El-Abd (CM), Dean Cox (LM), Joe Gatting (CF), Jake Robinson (CF). Subs: Alex Frutos (for Hart 78), Nathan Elder (for Gatting 73), Tommy Fraser (for Carpenter 73), Tommy Elphick, Michel Kuipers.

MILLWALL (4-4-2):
Lenny Pidgeley (GK), Danny Senda (RB), Paul Robinson (CB), Richard Shaw (CB), Tony Craig (LB), Chris Hackett (RM), Marvin Elliott (CM), Neal Ardley (CM), Alan Dunne (LM), Neil Harris (CF), Darren Byfield (CF). Subs: Ben May (for Byfield 83), Chris Day, Chris Zebroski (for Hackett 67), Poul Hubertz, Marvin Williams.