Albion boss Peter Taylor is backing his troops to stretch a remarkable recovery run against runaway leaders Reading at Withdean tonight.

Eleven League defeats for the Seagulls over the last 18 months have each been followed immediately by a victory.

Albion's ability to bounce straight back will be tested again this evening after Saturday's expensive 2-0 setback at Oldham, when 25-goal Bobby Zamora was rested to the bench and then sent-off.

Reading's last-gasp 2-1 home win over lowly Notts County leaves them seven points clear of Albion, but the Seagulls have a game in hand and a bullish Taylor declared: "The players are fine.

"I told them the performance as far as I'm concerned was excellent. Okay we didn't score and lost 2-0, so that might surprise a lot of people, but the performance was fine.

"Reading are absolutely flying at the moment, but we intend to beat them."

Zamora was sent-off by St Helens ref Chris Foy six minutes from the end for kicking out at Oldham's Chris Armstrong. He faces a three-match ban for violent conduct, ruling him out of the home game against Wrexham on February 23, the south coast derby at Bournemouth three days later and the trip to promotion rivals Stoke on March 1.

Taylor protested to Foy that no action was taken against Armstrong. "I would love them to start realising why all of a sudden somebody would take a little kick at someone," he said. "Of course the answer is that the leftback bodychecked him to stop him getting to the ball. Bobby was very frustrated, which was wrong, but I understand his feelings because a foul wasn't given."

Zamora, a 56th-minute replacement for Daniel Webb, almost equalised with his first touch as he crashed a header against the crossbar.

Taylor revealed: "I spoke to Bobby before the Chesterfield game and said I thought he was looking tired. He agreed but still wanted to carry on. He actually said to me after the Tranmere match last Tuesday that he was shattered and to me that was the signal."

Webb will also be suspended for the Wrexham and Bournemouth games following his tenth booking of the season.

The Reading game is definitely on aftera pitch inspection earlier this afternoon.