Albion manager Mark McGhee today challenged Paul Reid to stake a claim for a starting role in his preferred position at Reading on Saturday week.

A place in the centre of midfield is up for grabs in the Seagulls' Coca-Cola Championship opener, as Richard Carpenter will not be ready following knee surgery.

Reid made his first pre-season appearance at Stevenage Borough last night following a thigh strain.

Now the Australian, who featured on the right towards the end of last season after signing from Bradford, will have further opportunities to impress at Southend tomorrow night and Cambridge United on Saturday.

McGhee said: "After missing the last couple of weeks of pre-season he has a lot of hard work to do to catch up, but he does have time before Reading to get himself into better shape.

"He has Wednesday and Saturday to stake his claim.

"Richard Carpenter is making steady progress. I don't expect him to make the Reading game but I think by then he will be back in training and not far away."

Reid played the first 45 minutes in the middle of the park last night as a young Albion XI lost 1-0 to Stevenage, one of the pre-season favourites for the Conference.

Alexis Nicolas, a 21-year-old central midfielder from Chelsea, featured along with fellow trialists Albert Jarrett and Darren Currie.

Albion lost their unbeaten pre-season record to a goal from a corner but McGhee was pleased with the performance and Kerry Mayo in particular, who marshalled an inexperienced back four.

The build-up to the big kick-off begins in earnest tomorrow night as Albion prepare for their first matches against League opposition.

"In the Southend and Cambridge games we have got to start to look towards our starting line-up," McGhee said.

"We have done a lot of hard, physical work in training and we've had games which have been successful in their own way. It's now a case of starting to put a team together."