Albion are shooting themselves in the foot with their poor disciplinary record.

Losing players through injury is unavoidable but the wounds are self-inflicted when players are lost regularly due to suspension.

Manager Dean Wilkins was more culture than agriculture in his playing days. His side cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be accused of playing dirty.

But the fact of the matter is Tommy Fraser collected Albion's eighth red card of the campaign in the closing stages, which is too many.

Seven different players have been sent-off (Kerry Mayo twice) and that is not all. Exactly the same number of yellow cards (62) have been accumulated as goals, with five players banned for reaching five cautions.

Some of the punishments have been unfortunate, notably Guy Butters' early bath at Millwall when he was the last man, and Dean Cox's celebration with the fans which contributed to his first day dismissal at Rotherham.

Others have been inexcuseable and, giving Fraser the benefit of the doubt, he falls somewhere in-between.

On a day when Albion players wearing red noses dominated the front cover of the programme, there was not much comic relief for young Tommy. Red-faced, yes, but with rage or embarrassment?

The enthusiastic midfielder, on in place of Nick Ward, had only been on the pitch for 20 minutes when he trod on the back of Adriano Basso.

Bristol's Brazilian custodian had just theatrically held a header from Bas Savage and he did not help by making a meal of the incident. Basso claimed afterwards it was a step rather than a stamp, warranting only a yellow card, referee Mike Riley interpreted it as violent conduct.

Only Fraser really knows if it was deliberate or unintentional. Either way he pays a heavy price by missing the next three games. Fraser's premature departure is laced with double irony. Saturday's encounter was the cut-off for bans for five bookings and he entered the fray on four.

Riley, meanwhile, was not even meant to be in charge. He made the long journey from Leeds because his Premiership colleague, Mike Dean from Wirral, switched to Wrexham to replace the injured Phil Dowd.

Riley hit the headlines a few days earlier with a record 11 cards in the Champions League clash between Roma and Lyon.

He made the odd bad decision, most obviously when he tried to play an advantage for Albion in the second half which did not materialise but then failed to bring play back for the free-kick.

There could be no complaints, though, about the late penalty award which sealed the Seagulls' fate. Dean Hammond hauled down Brian Wilson as he cut in from the right wing and Phil Jevons clinched the points for City from the spot.

While Fraser made the wrong kind of impact, Jevons made all the difference after replacing an angry Wayne Andrews up front for the visitors inside the opening half-hour.

It turned out to be a masterstroke by Bristol's diminutive boss Gary Johnson, Jevons providing the all-important breakthrough two minutes from the break.

Wilson's corner should have been headed clear before it reached the former Yeovil marksman, lurking towards the rear of the penalty area. Jevons controlled the ball on his chest and found the far top corner of the net with a well-struck angled volley.

Wilkins was disappointed both by that concession from a dead ball situation and Albion's own set pieces, particularly as they had practised them on the ever-deteriorating Withdean pitch a few hours earlier.

"The goal they scored from a set play just before half-time knocked the stuffing out of us a wee bit," he said. "I've been trying to stress the importance of set plays both for and against and ours have been poor recently.

"I think the players have become complacent because we practise them every week and we have got to make better use of them."

Once behind, Albion, unlike against Nottingham Forest, never really looked like recovering against accomplished and uncompromising opponents. The mud-clinging playing surface made for a poor spectacle and it was hard to argue about the merit of City's victory.

They also hit a post twice from free-kicks by Jevons and David Noble, while Albion were unable to manufacture a clear chance inside the box. The closest they came was a curler from outside the area by Ward in the first half, which the diving Basso caught with Samba-like flamboyance.

Bristol, with as Johnson put it, plenty of "big hitters" in the treatment room such as Scott Murray and Enoch Showunmi, look a good bet for automatic promotion.

The inconsistent Seagulls, meanwhile, are now 12th out of 24 teams, eight points adrift of the play-offs and eight clear of relegation. If they are still there at the start of May it will be a satisfactory season.

Joel Lynch, fitness permitting, should be reunited with Butters at Crewe on Saturday. Perhaps Albion's young and old central defensive partnership ought to teach their team-mates how to conduct themselves.

Amazingly, they have picked up only one booking between them all season, for Lynch at Yeovil back in September.

ALBION (4-1-2-1-2): Scott Flinders (GK), Adam El-Abd (RB), Joe O'Cearuill (CB), Guy Butters (CB), Kerry Mayo (LB), Alexis Bertin (CM), Dean Cox (RM), Dean Hammond (LM), Nick Ward (CM), Joe Gatting (CF), Bas Savage (CF). Subs: Alex Revell (for Gatting 46), Tommy Fraser (for Ward 63), Nathan Elder (for Butters 77), John Sullivan, Tommy Elphick.

BRISTOL CITY (3-1-4-2): Adriano Basso (GK), Bradley Orr (RB), Louis Carey (CB), Richard Keogh (CD/M), Liam Fontaine (LB), Brian Wilson (RM), Cole Skuse (CM), David Noble (CM), Kevin Betsy (CF), Steve Brooker (CF), Wayne Andrews (CF). Subs: Phil Jevons (for Andrews 28), Andy Smith (for Brooker 60), Craig Woodman (for Noble 85), Lee Johnson, Sean Thomas.

Did Albion do enough to earn a draw against Bristol City?