It may have been a friendly at an almost deserted Third Division ground, but Albion's midweek visit to Leyton Orient meant an awful lot to Michel Kuipers.

The game at Brisbane Road marked the Dutch goalkeeper's comeback from injuries sustained in a serious car crash on the way into training seven weeks ago.

Kuipers played the second half and kept a clean sheet in the Seagulls' 2-1 defeat.

"I really enjoyed it," he said. "It was good to go out there and get some minutes under my belt.

"It's important to be playing competitive football again. The main thing now is to get some match fitness and as soon as the whistle went I was straight in there."

Kuipers cheated death in the accident on Ditchling Beacon Road, Brighton. He was behind the wheel of wife Rebecca's yellow sports Mazda when it was involved in a collision with a car driven by a policewoman.

Firefighters had to cut Kuipers free from the wreckage. He was airlifted to the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath but escaped with cuts and bruising.

Kuipers, a former Dutch marine, is mentally strong and that has helped his rehabilitation.

"The recovery time has been good," he said. "I have just tried to turn this whole thing into a positive.

"Sometimes these things can bring you down. You can lose your confidence and your whole life can be on a low, but I won't let that happen. I intend to see this as an experience I have battled through and won."

The next target for Kuipers is a return to League action. "Everybody wants to play in the first team," he said. "The only thing I can do is keep giving 100 per cent and training really hard. When I get an opportunity I'll be well pleased."

Manager Mark McGhee is being careful not to rush Kuipers after such a traumatic experience.

"He has trained this week for the first time," McGhee said. "It would have been too much to ask Michel after the problems he's had to go straight back into the team."

Kuipers could make his first start since the accident in the Sussex Senior Cup at Eastbourne Town on Wednesday.