Milton Keynes 1 Albion 0.

YOU cannot expect to go through a season unbeaten, unless you are Arsenal.

You cannot expect to go through a season losing only one game, unless you are Manchester United.

Bad days at the office are inevitable and Albion have still won or drawn 25 of their 30 matches in League One.

But it is beginning to look as if they will have to rely, in the main, on their invincible form at fortress Withdean to haul themselves over the finishing line in a hectic run-in.

The Seagulls set impossibly high standards for themselves with those effervescent and emphatic victories at Charlton and Peterborough in October. Results on the road since then have emphasised they are only human.

Four defeats, two draws and just two victories still equates to a point per game which, as long as it is combined with wins at home, maintains the two points per match promotion target.

Slightly more disconcerting is the recent level of performances by Albion on their travels. They were ordinary in tight games at Bournemouth and Orient and had to come from behind against Exeter and a poor Bristol Rovers side.

The display they produced at MK Dons was probably the most collectively inept of the season.

The manager might dispute that. When I asked Gus Poyet if he could remember a worse performance he referred back to the out-of-character defending at Hartlepool.

On that bleak afternoon in the North East I cannot recall Poyet being so frequently and despairingly demonstrative at the shortcomings of his own players as he was on the touchline on Saturday.

Albion spluttered as badly in all areas as the broken down team coach which meant the players had to be transported from the hotel by a convoy of taxis, with ample time to spare for it to be no excuse.

You might get away with two or three players performing well below their best but when it is seven or eight you are bound to struggle.

The defenders are normally exceptional at covering each other’s backs. This time there were too many examples of isolation.

The midfielders are normally dependable with their passing. Possession is cherished but the ball was given away cheaply on numerous occasions, particularly in the first half.

The strikers, such a goal threat in recent matches, have rarely been so quiet. There was an unusual lack of snap in their movement and link-up play.

Most surprising of all, there was a lack of imagination once MK Dons had been reduced to ten men for the second half of the second half by the dismissal of Sean O’Hanlon.

Albion did not carve out a decent chance with numerical supremacy and became, dare I say it, predictable. The absence of the injured Craig Noone as an attacking threat from the bench was glaring in that respect.

In fairness, it is easy to be too insular about the reasons for a defeat without giving due credit to the opposition.

MK Dons must have a pretty good chance of being promoted themselves on this evidence. They are the closest team to Albion I have seen this season in terms of the way they set up and the way they play. It was, as Poyet observed, a Continental-type contest rather than a typical English game.

Their two wide men, lively Fulham loanee Keanu Marsh-Brown and powerful match-winner Daniel Powell, were excellent.

The experienced Luke Chadwick is their roving answer to Elliott Bennett. They have a good goalkeeper in David Martin and defended in the same disciplined manner as Albion have for the majority of the campaign.

Not, though, in the passage of play which led to the decisive goal. The Seagulls had several chances to clear their lines before a header from O’Hanlon hit the upright and Powell nodded in the rebound, his fourth goal in seven outings.

Albion’s early control had evaporated by that stage. They were second-best in the middle of the park and could not get the front men into the game.

Opportunities were much fewer than normal, the pick of them falling in each half to Chris Wood. The young Kiwi, still troubled by ankle bone bruising, missed the ball completely when trying to steer in a low cross from Ashley Barnes from a few yards out.

Martin denied him with a fine double save after the break, keeping out a downward header and then smothering his attempt to tuck away the loose ball.

Albion have, for the most part, looked like a top of the table team even in defeat. This was not one of them but they were not alone in having a bit of a shocker. Referee Carl Boyeson got two big decisions badly wrong.

O’Hanlon, booked in the first half for a foul on Glenn Murray, should already have been back in the dressing room by the time he brainlessly brought down the Albion centre-forward again in the middle of the park.

O’Hanlon had, 15 minutes earlier, blatantly impeded Wood’s attempt to latch onto a pass from Barnes on the break. Boyeson inexplicably let him off the hook.

Two wrongs do not make a right. The home side were later denied a cast-iron penalty when Marcos Painter stuck a leg out to halt Rowan Vine, Dons’ industrious lone front man.

Poyet said: “"How could he miss the yellow card when he could see the foul? How could he not give a penalty? It was embarrassing.”

After failing to score for the third time at Stadiummk, Albion now head for Yeovil, another unhappy hunting ground for them in recent seasons. The biggest enemy is not Bournemouth or the other pursuers but themselves and their faltering away form.

Albion (4-2-1-3): Ankergren; Calderon (Sparrow 76), Greer, El-Abd, Painter (Taricco 84); Bridcutt, Dicker; Bennett; Wood, Murray, Barnes (Sandaza 54). Subs not used: Brezovan, Elphick, Baz, Holroyd.

Goals: None.

Red cards: None.

Yellow cards: Greer (72) foul, El-Abd (73) foul.

MK Dons (4-2-3-1): Martin; Doumbe, O'Hanlon, MacKenzie, Lewington; Leven, Gleeson; Powell (Ibehre 74), Chadwick, Marsh-Brown (Hughes 78); Vine (Baldock 78). Subs not used: Searle, Stirling, Guy, Chicksen.

Goal: Powell (28).

Red card: O'Hanlon (37) foul and (67) foul.

Yellow card: Chadwick (63) foul.