Derby County 3, Albion 0

If the Albion players are still right behind Sami Hyypia and his methods, they have a funny way of showing it.

Premature capitulation against the Championship pacesetters has increased and intensified calls for Hyypia's head.

Three goals leaked all too easily in the opening 20 minutes left the Finn looking foolish after he had spent the week in response to the damaging home setback against Fulham striving for solidity.

Appearing and sounding demoralised - understandably in the circumstances - Hyypia spoke during his post-match press conference of "working on our defensive side", the need to "tighten up a little bit" following the fall into the bottom three.

All the preparation went out of the window in the early carnage as Derby, hurt by a limp defeat at Leeds, ruthlessly exposed the frailities of Hyypia's depleted squad.

The problem for chairman Tony Bloom is the extent to which he stands by the man he appointed in the summer after a painstaking selection process and was so bullish about during the last international break.

There was not much wriggle room in Bloom's words. He talked of looking beyond results at performances and the bigger picture, of his faith in Hyypia to pull through and be at the club for many years to come.

Albion have collected one point from a tough trio of fixtures since then against Norwich, Fulham and Derby.

That is not enough in their perilous position but also probably not bad enough for Bloom to stage a sudden U-turn.

Hyypia's situation is sure to be discussed tomorrow at a routine Board meeting after one league win in the last 16.

For any manager under pressure with his team falling below expectations there is a tipping point, a moment when the urgency for results overwhelms a long-term strategy and mitigating circumstances.

There is mitigation aplenty in Hyypia's case - the huge turnover of players, the loss of key players either sold, not re-signed or injured, a poor summer transfer window for the club, supporter expectation inflated by over-achievement last season under Oscar Garcia, individual mistakes at one end, missed chances at the other ensuring a relentless pattern of draws or narrow defeats.

The heaviest reverse of Hyypia's reign at Derby, although alarming in its initial manner, was not as serious for his future as it might have been if three goals had turned into five or six.

Defeat was widely anticipated, even by the 600 fans who made the journey to the East Midlands.

Millwall on Friday night at the Amex under the glare of the Sky cameras is a different matter, trial by television. The atmosphere is bound to be tense and tetchy, the media room more packed than normal.

Even with over half of the season to go, time enough for a turnaround, it feels already like crunch time for the team and their manager.

Hyypia did not help himself at Derby with a bold starting line-up bordering on the naive, which rapidly turned into a suicide note.

During the week he had intimated Joao Teixeira would be the odd loan out again of the five from six permitted, because of his preference for a centre-half (the versatile Greg Halford) on the bench.

Teixeira was picked instead as well as Solly March, after his brief return from four months out with a stress fracture of the back as a substitute against Fulham.

Glen Rea, a promising Republic of Ireland under-21 from the development squad, was drafted in as a substitute central defender.

In fairness, Hyypia was choosing with one hand tied behind his back, with skipper Gordon Greer, Kazenga LuaLua and Sam Baldock added to the casualty list and Adrian Colunga suspended.

Derby was not the place to be so gung-ho. In under half-an-hour, with the game already won and lost, Hyypia reverted to the customary formation with a tactical substitution, removing Teixeira and introducing Rohan Ince as an extra central midfielder to protect the back four.

Derby's intensity levels inevitably dropped for periods during the ensuing 0-0 draw for the rest of the no-contest but Hyypia probably regrets now not picking Ince in the first instance.

That said, he was entitled to expect much more, a bit of backbone and awareness. It was far too straightforward for Derby to score their goals.

The Seagulls were swept aside by the pace, power, movement and energy of their hosts who, on this compelling evidence, will make amends for heartbreak in the play-off final against QPR last season.

Oscar's Albion were dismantled 6-2 on aggregate on the road to Wembley and beaten both times by Derby in the regular campaign. Chris Martin was their nemesis then and he was again.

He may not be good enough to trouble England - Martin lasted 45 minutes in Scotland's recent friendly defeat - but the former Norwich centre-forward was too good for Albion.

His brace, his first goals since that international disappointment, raised his tally for the season to 14 and to six in the five straight wins against the Seagulls since the start of last season.

Hyypia's side fatally stood off ten minutes in when Martin cut inside onto fellow Scot Johnny Russell's pass to drill Derby ahead.

Five minutes later it was two. Martin laid the ball off for Craig Forsyth to release the scampering Russell inside the box. His clipped finish left David Stockdale groping at air.

Another five minutes and it was three. Cyrus Christie was allowed to whip in a right-wing cross and Martin got the run on Bruno at the far post to power in a header. Easy peasy.

Game over, it became damage limitation for Albion and an opportunity for Derby to conserve energy. Their supporters are a hard bunch to please. Top of the league and three goals to the good, the odd mistake or two in possession was greeted by moans and groans galore.

It could have developed into a demolition Derby in a second half controlled by the hosts without feeling a need to exert themselves, especially when Stockdale spilled a Craig Bryson shot onto a post.

Albion's one glimmer of hope fluttered away at 2-0 down on a marginal offside call from the assistant, when the too-often isolated Darren Bent steered in a header from Jake Forster-Caskey's defence-splitting pass.

The capture of Bent, in tandem with Elliott Bennett's availability for the last two games, has not had the desired effect on results. Albion's current problems are more at the other end of the pitch, where three goals have been conceded in each of the last three away games and 12 in the last six matches overall.

That rare win and clean sheet against fellow play-off participants turned strugglers Wigan at the Amex already seems an age ago, not a month.