Albion boss Micky Adams fears a fixture pile-up has handed the Third Division title to Chesterfield.

Tuesday's postponement at Rochdale was the fourth time the Seagulls have had a League game called off since Christmas. The Rochdale visit was originally snowed off on December 30.

Albion also had home matches against Lincoln and Barnet postponed last month because of the problems with the Withdean pitch. Chesterfield have capitalised on the second-placed Seagulls' inactivity to go 13 points clear, although Adams' men have four games in hand.

"There are not too many midweek dates available to us now for the Rochdale match," he said.

"It's going to be a right scramble at the end and the ones that have benefitted are Chesterfield. They have been playing and winning."

Albion's 19 remaining League games will now be squeezed into the last 12 weeks of the season.

Chesterfield have an opportunity to stretch their lead to 16 points at home to Cheltenham on Friday night.

Adams' frustration mounted on Tuesday once the Rochdale game had been postponed. He was desperate to stage a training session on grass, but the pitches at the University of Sussex were waterlogged again.

Adams is concerned that constant pounding in the gym and on Astroturf is increasing the risk of injuries to his players.

They trained instead close to another pitch on the University site not designated for use by the club and that led to a phone call from Brighton and Hove Council.

Carr back
Darren Carr has returned from a month's loan with Lincoln. Albion's out-of-favour stopper had an earlier loan stint at Rotherham.

Rookie centre half James Virgo made the briefest of League debuts at Torquay last Saturday. He replaced Bobby Zamora in the dying seconds.