Brighton slumped to their seventh league defeat in succession against fellow strugglers Stoke.
The Seagulls were made to pay for defensive mistakes yet again as the visitors chalked up their second win of the season.
Tommy Mooney, on loan from Birmingham, put Stoke ahead with a 17th minute penalty after Shaun Wilkinson handled a Bjarni Gudjonsson cross.
Injury-hit Brighton shot themselves in the foot again after 76 minutes. Central defenders Danny Cullip and Guy Butters collided inside the box and Andy Cooke cracked in the loose ball for 12 yards.
Richard Carpenter reduced the arrears three minutes later with an unstoppable shot from 25 yards, his second goal in as many matches.
Brighton felt they should have had two penalties of their own in the second half.
They had claims for handball when Wilkinson had a shot charged down and the match ended in controversy deep into injury time when Gary Hart appeared to be brought down in the area by Sergei Shtaniuk.
Referee Grant Hegley waved away the penalty appeals and booked Cullip and team-mate Paul Watson for protesting.
Brighton manager Martin Hinshelwood said: "My players are upset. People keep saying to me by the end of the season things will level themselves out. I cannot wait for it to start, because we will have a chance then.
"Shaun just turned his back and he is not going to handle it there. It was ball to hand more than anything.
"In the second half the fourth official said his shot hit the Stoke player in the back, but he needs his eyes tested.
"I think he got his hand on it, and at the end I thought it was a penalty as well."