Albion chief Steve Coppell wants the players to prove they can win in the League without Bobby Zamora.

Zamora serves a one-match suspension against Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium on Saturday after picking up a fifth caution after scoring the winner in the 1-0 victory at Bradford.

The Seagulls have lost each of the ten matches he has missed so far this season with the exception of a Worthington Cup victory at home to the Third Division's bottom club Exeter.

Coppell says it is up to the players coming in to make the most of Zamora's absence. "Between now and the end of the season I don't think I will change a winning team, whatever that winning team is.

"It would take exceptional circumstances so whoever comes in on Saturday should be looking upon it as an opportunity, not just Bobby's out and then Bobby will be back. I don't want it to be automatic for any player.

"I feel it is an incentive for players to know if they come in and do a job they are going to get rewarded by at the very least keeping a place."

Zamora has been back to his best recently, four goals in the last six games pushing his season's tally into double figures.

"It's a blow obviously because he is a quality player," Coppell said. "I am appreciating that more and more the more I see him.

"He has given an awful lot to the cause, not just his goals but his work. His commitment is terrific and it would be easy for him perhaps to be looking at greener grasses elsewhere.

"I think in January he had a few things going on and I think he was a little bit affected by the transfer window. Since the window has been closed I personally think he has been exceptional, top quality in his manner about the place."

Gary Hart reaches the halfway point of a four-match ban against Gillingham, so Anthony Rougier is poised to make his full debut up front alongside Graham Barrett. Loan signing Rougier scored the only goal when Reading won at the Priestfield Stadium in November.

The Gills also have a ban blow to overcome. Player-manager Andy Hessenthaler begins a two-match suspension for ten bookings.

A relieved Coppell said: "I saw him play at Reading and he had a massive game."

Stoke's 1-0 home win over Walsall last night means they move off the bottom of the table, within a point and two places of Albion.