You can pour in as many millions of pounds as you like, but you cannot change the culture of a club overnight. Manchester City may be the richest club in the world after the takeover by Sheikh Mansour, but they remain one of the most accident-prone outfits in the game and went out of the Carling Cup last night to a club 52 league places below them.

City had looked on their way through to the third round until they conceded a late equaliser in normal time. Although they pulled the scores level after Brighton & Hove Albion had taken the lead in extra time, Michel Kuipers, the Brighton goal-keeper, who performed heroics all night, made the decisive save in the penalty shoot-out, stopping City’s fourth kick from Michael Ball, and Matt Richards knocked City out.

“We understand that a lot of focus is on us, and disappointing results will obviously be highlighted, but Brighton worked extremely hard,” Mark Hughes, the City manager, said. “We had a strong enough team out to win, but we didn’t.” City rested Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips for the delayed second-round match, but even so should have won after Gelson Fernandes broke the deadlock after 64 minutes. But an 88th-minute equaliser from Glenn Murray forced extra time, and Joe Anyinsah, the substitute, who is on loan from Preston North End, put Brighton ahead after four minutes of the first extra period.

Stephen Ireland equalised early in the second period, and although City pressed for a decider against tiring opponents, they were unable to settle the match before penalties, Brighton beating Kasper Schmeichel with all five of their kicks. “We practised penalties,” Micky Adams, the Brighton manager, said. “I told the players that I once took one against the other Schmeichel [Peter, Kasper’s father] in a shoot-out for Southampton against Manchester United and I sent him the wrong way. I asked for volunteers and I only got four, so I had to go back for another one.” As Hughes said, Brighton, of Coca-Cola League One, did themselves proud in front of a record attendance of 8,729 at their temporary home. Jeered off at the weekend after losing at home to Walsall, who played for an hour with only nine men, they held their own against the Barclays Premier League side and, if they were indebted to Kuipers, they worked hard enough to deserve the result.

“On Saturday we got the bird and we deserved it,” Adams said. “This was an easy game to get up for, but I’m not going to crow about it. As a manager and a player, I’ve been on the wrong end of these shocks.” It was City’s second successive match against a team from the South Coast, but, in stark contrast to their 6-0 humiliation of Portsmouth on Sunday, ended up as yet another chapter in a history of embarrassing defeats in the competition that they last won in 1976. Chesterfield beat them two seasons ago, and Doncaster Rovers knocked them out on penalties the year before.

Brighton had the first clear-cut chance after 20 minutes, when Steve Thomson hit a post, but after that it was City against Kuipers, who saved from Ireland, Jô and Michael Johnson before half-time.

Brighton had put so much effort into the first half that you wondered how much they had left after the interval - and after Gelson Fernandes converted Jô’s pass. Kuipers continued to defy City as they looked increasingly comfortable, but the Premier League side had no margin for error, a point that was driven home when Thomson went through again and the ball fell to Murray, who bundled it home from close range. However, four minutes into the first period of extra time, Anyinsah twisted and turned before making a yard of space, and his shot rolled past Schmeichel’s dive.

“In the second half, I thought we were very comfortable,” Hughes said. “Leading with two minutes to go, we should be professional enough to win, but we didn’t.”

Brighton & Hove Albion (4-1-4-1): M Kuipers — A Whing (sub: S Cook, 85min), T Elphick, A Virgo, M Richards — A El-Abd — T Fraser (sub: D Cox, 75), S Thomson, D Livermore, D Loft (sub: J Ansinyah, 68) — G Murray. Substitutes not used: J Sullivan, G Hart, J Robinson, K Wills. Booked: Livermore, El-Abd.

Manchester City (4-1-4-1): K Schmeichel — P Zabaleta, T Ben-Haim, R Dunne, M Ball — V Kompany — S Ireland, G Fernandes, M Johnson (sub: Elano, 98), D Sturridge (sub: C Evans, 61) — Jô (sub: F Caicedo, 90). Substitutes not used: J Hart, J Garrido, D Hamann, S Logan.

Referee: A D’Urso.

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