Latics found seven was far from a lucky number as they crashed to a costly home defeat against Brighton in Coca-Cola League One.

This was Latics' seventh league defeat at Boundary Park as they remain dangerously close to the relegation places.

This was an opportunity to extend their unbeaten run to five matches and inch further away from the danger zone, but they were unable to prevent away-day specialists Brighton from recording a seventh league victory on the road

Brighton arrived in town unbeaten in their last seven away league matches and they extended that impressive sequence to eight games as they have lost only four of their 19 matches on their league travels.

It was easy to see why they are so hard to beat away as Uruguayan manager Gus Poyet has them well organised operating a disciplined 4-5-1 defending and 4-3-3 attacking with wide men Seb Carole and Elliott Bennett supporting lone front man Glenn Murray.

Latics had their moments, but it was the all too familiar story of the season - failling to take the chances they create and then conceding what can only be described as comical goals.

It left manager Dave Penney frustrated as he explained: "\We had been on a decent run winning two and rawing two of our previous four matches, but still not scoring enough goals.

"We had been picking up points, but today was a major setback."

Looking back on the match, Penney continued: "We had four proper chances in the game to score and they had one worldy which went into the top corner while we gave them their other goal. Here ends the lesson.

"If we weren't making chances it would worry me but, after the ones we created against Brighton, we should have scored two or three goals."

Of the goals Latics conceded Penney said: "Perhaps we could have closed him  (Bennett) down and forced him down the line because he is a right footer, but you have to hold up your hand and say what a good goal it was. But before they opened the scoring, we had three good chances ourselves.

"I get fed up with saying it, but if you don't put the ball in the net you aren't going to win games.

"After conceding the second goal, which we gave them after a comedy of errors, you could see heads went down and the body language was poor.

"We had a go missing a penalty, hitting the crossbar and having another good chance to get something out of the game."

Penney made two changes from the side which won at Stockport in midweek as Jon Worthington and Danny Whitaker won recalls into midfield in place of Alex Marrow and Deane Smalley. Dale Stephens was again ruled out through injury.

Latics started brightly creating four clear-cut chances in the first seven minutes and the omens looked good as Brighton barely had a kick. The two which fell to Pawel Abbott were good goalscoring opportunities.

Brighton had barely mustered a chance before they stole ahead in the 40th minute through a spectacular strike from Bennett as he cut in from the left and fired a terrific right-foot shot across Darryl Flahavan into the top corner. No keeper on the planet would have kept it out.

Latics, to their credit, finished the half strongly with Abbott forcing keeper Peter Brezovan into two smart saves, Chris Taylor just failing to force home the rebound from the second effort.

Disaster struck again less than 12 minutes after the restart when Brighton doubled their advantage following a comical goal, though nobody was laughing about Latics' defending.

Worthington's wayward back pass contrived to cause the danger as Flahavan had to slide out of his box to clear. Reuben Hazell and Paul Black failed to clear the danger before Carole crossed low from the right and Worthington, trying desperately to clear, only succeeded in finding his own net from a couple of yards.

Penney's immediate response was to take off Whitaker and bring on Smalley while later Tom Eaves replaced Worthington who was making his first start since  damaging ankle ligaments in October.

Latics wasted an unexpected chance to get back into match with seven minutes left when a referee's assistant spotted a handball by Tommy Elphick as Latics were awarded a penalty.

Abbott stepped forward looking for his 12th goal of the season only to see Slovakian keeper Brezovan pulled off a super stop low to his right and Eaves, following up, had the misfortune of seeing his angled shot hit the underside of the bar, bounce down and to safety.

Had Latics halved the deficit it would have been game on as Smalley moments later had a free header from six yards, but failed to hit the target while there was another shout for a penalty when Marcos Painter clearly handled.

Yet at the death Brighton would have added a third goal but for a fine save from Flahavan to turn away Glenn Murray's goalbound shot.

Latics (4-4-2): Flahavan; Lee, Hazell, Gregan, Black; Whitaker (Smalley 59), Worthington (Eaves 78), Furman, Taylor; Abbott, Guy. Subs (not used): Brill, Jacobson, Marrow,. Colbeck, Millar.

Brighton (4-5-1): Brezovan; Calderon, Elphick, Ed-Abd, Painter; Bennett, Navarro (Virgo 87), Dicker, Crofts, Carole (Hart 88); Murray. Subs (not used): McNulty, Cox, Forster, Walker, Hoyte.

Referee: Mr D Webb.

Attendance: 4,059