Albion were today rocked by a shock suspension for Nathan Jones.

The Welshman is ruled out of Saturday's Withdean collision against his first club Cardiff. Boss Micky Adams has just discovered that Jones's booking at Exeter last month was his fifth of the season.

That means an automatic one-match ban, sidelining Jones from Saturday's sell-out promotion clash.

The left-sided midfielder, a former Cardiff trainee, was recalled to the starting line-up in place of Paul Brooker for last Saturday's 1-0 win at Torquay. Brooker was not even on the bench because of a back injury.

Adams admitted: "Losing Nathan is obviously a blow, for him more than anything. He has just got his place back. Paul Brooker has got a bad back, but he should be okay for Saturday."

Adams has already been hit by one ban blow. The postponement of last night's visit to Rochdale means the Cardiff crunch now counts as the third game of defender Danny Cullip's three-match suspension.

The loss of Jones and Cullip is softened by the absence of Cardiff's prolific young marksman Robert Earnshaw. A cartilage operation will keep him out for four weeks.

Earnshaw is the top scorer in the Third Division with 21 goals in all competitions, two ahead of Albion hot-shot Bobby Zamora. Cardiff boss Alan Cork wanted the highly rated pair to play together when he had a £1.2 million bid for Zamora rejected before Christmas.

Cardiff drew a blank in their first match without Earnshaw against Rochdale at Ninian Park last Friday.

Cork, Adams' assistant at Albion until September, is playing down the 19-year-old's absence from the attack and the significance of Saturday's showdown. He said: "I am not worried about us scoring goals so much as stopping them. It's not really a big game, because there are so many left. There are still about 60 points to play for yet."

Cardiff are splashing out £450,000 on 6ft 4ins centre half David Hughes from Shrewsbury. They have also paid £10,000 to beam Saturday's match back to Ninian Park on a big screen and hospitality televisions. Their maximum allocation of 750 tickets sold out within a couple of hours.

Tonight's reserve game for the Seagulls against Leyton Orient at Worthing is another casualty of the weather, causing further frustration for Lee Steele. The striker badly needs a full run-out after making his comeback from knee damage as a second half substitute at Torquay.