Rami Shaaban was unable to keep a clean sheet as Brighton and Hove Albion suffered a 2-0 away loss at the hands of Stoke City. The Britannia Stadium witnessed two penalty decisions in the matter of 5 minutes which won the game for the home side. Half-Egyptian Adam El-Abd also returned from injury and took part in the game.

Rami Shaaban started his third game for the Seagulls against play-off hopefuls Stoke City. The first half was nothing more than a one-sided affair, which saw Shaaban on his toes for the full 45 minutes, even if he had no meaningful saves to make. The pressure from the home side was immense and threats came from both wings, especially the right, at which the skilful winger Darel Russell resided.

Brighton were tested early on mainly through crosses, most of which were blocked or successfully cleared by the defence. Those that reached Rami caused some problems however, as one ball was punched away unconfidently. This fell for Brammer who skied his shot, making it a lucky escape for Brighton. Another cross failed to be cleared, and the referee's whistle saved the situation, as he signalled for a foul on Shaaban.

The first real attempt on goal was a Harper shot, which whistled low past the post and wide, leaving Shaaban stretching to save with his feet.

On the whole, there was not much for the keeper to do in the first period, even though the play was concentrated at one end, and even less to do for the Stoke keeper, who was not troubled once by Brighton's timid attack.

This was to change however, with the referee making his mark on the game in a controversial five minutes. The first penalty he gave on 38 minutes looked dubious, as Duberry was adjudged to have been put down in the area by McCammon. There seemed to be minimal contact. Noel-Williams sent Rami the wrong way to make it 1-0 to Stoke from the spot.

The fiery anger of the away supporters was aggravated even more when only 5 minutes later the referee gave another doubtful penalty decision. This time he pointed to the spot after claims that Hinshellwood had pulled a player back while jumping to head away; claims that even the Stoke players hadn't made. Confusion for players and fans of Brighton followed, as they tried to figure out where the penalty had come from, a foul or a handball, each fan with his own wise theory. Noel-Williams scored again, once more sending the ball to the right of the keeper. Shaaban was agonisingly close on this occasion having guessed right, but his fingertips couldn't deny Stoke their second.

Just before half time, a volley by Stoke's Clint Hill clearly hit a Brighton hand, but the referee only gave a corner. This was the a much clearer case than the previous two, and would have not resulted in complaints from Brighton, but it seemed the referee was trying to make amends.

Referee Mr. Webster found himself at the end of much abuse from the away fans as the interval approached, with chants of "Two-Nil to the Referee" echoing loudly at the Britannia.