Albion boss Steve Coppell has welcomed the return to goalscoring form of Bobby Zamora.

The Seagulls' talisman ended his longest ever famine for the club with a superb finish in Saturday's 1-1 home draw against leaders Portsmouth.

Coppell said: "I've said for a long time for us to have a chance of getting out of the situation we are in we have to have Bobby Zamora scoring consistently.

"It would be easy in our position for a goalscorer to hide but he never has.

"He always accepts the responsibility of being up there leading the line and doing the spadework. He always has a number of strikes every week."

Zamora's 54th-minute effort, two days after his 22nd birthday, increased his tally for an injury-interrupted season to seven and finished a drought spanning six matches.

With his current partner, loan signing Graham Barrett, about to make up his mind over a permanent move from Arsenal to Preston, Coppell is glad to have Paul Kitson back in contention.

Kitson replaced Barrett in the closing stages, his first appearance since September.

"It would be great if we could guarantee Paul Kitson was going to be fit for the remaining 18 games," Coppell said. "Then we have options.

"In so many games, if you look at the opposition's bench they have got real firepower.

"With Paul being available, Harty (Gary Hart) there and Dean Blackwell also on the bench, all of a sudden we have options rather than making up the numbers."

Coppell hopes broken toe victim Simon Rodger will be close to returning to action as well by the time Albion play their next match at fellow strugglers Walsall a week on Saturday.

Captain Danny Cullip took plenty of encouragement from the deadlock against Portsmouth. Svetoslav Todorov's 64th-minute equaliser consigned the Seagulls to a hat-trick of draws in the League, but Cullip said: "We knew we had to get about them and I think we did well.

"We have got to forget we are bottom. We are picking points up, creating chances and looking solid at the back.

"We know if we have our best eleven and everyone plays to their potential we can match most teams in this League and we are showing that."

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