Dave Beasant has warned Michel Kuipers he will have to fight for the right to be considered Albion's No. 1 again.

Beasant, presented with a cake at the training ground on Thursday to celebrate his 44th birthday, is not about to blow the candles out on his goalkeeping career with the Seagulls.

Kuipers is creeping closer to a full recovery from a pulled thigh muscle, but Beasant declared: "Where ever I have been throughout my career I have always had battles and challenges and competition from other goalkeepers.

"I am quite happy to have competition and to be down here. I've got the shirt at the moment and I intend to keep it until the end of the season."

Beasant has been around long enough to experience a few ups and downs and he has revealed relegation is a dirty word in the Albion dressing room.

"We don't talk about relegation," he said. "We don't want to have negative thoughts in the camp.

"We are not over confident and thinking we cannot go down but there isn't fear about the place. We just get on with it.

"I got relegated at Nottingham Forest and my career started with about four yo-yo seasons at Wimbledon, so I have been there and I know what it's all about.

"What everyone fears is the tag of being a failure for getting relegated. There are pressures at the top of the division and different pressures at the bottom.

"At the moment I am playing for this season and my target is to make sure we stay in this division. For me to be part of that would be a success."

Beasant is doing his bit to make that wish come true. He kept it clean at Withdean for the third match on the trot against Forest last Saturday.

In Tuesday's local derby against Crystal Palace he will be protecting a proud record of fours hours and 55 minutes without conceding a goal at Albion's temporary home.

Beasant is modest about his own contribution. He prefers to pass the credit on to captain Danny Cullip, Icelander Ivar Ingimarsson on loan from Wolves and fellow former Wimbledon stalwart Dean Blackwell.

The central defensive trio have been in frugal form since Beasant joined the Seagulls for the rest of the campaign on a short-term contract from Wigan.

Forest's prolific strike force of David Johnson, Marlon Harewood and Darren Huckerby could not find a way past them.

"They handled themselves brilliantly up against three forwards with a tremendous goalscoring record," Beasant said.

"I am not the one responsible for the clean sheets. They have to work extremely hard to keep the boys away from me.

"If you can help by organising them to achieve that then you are doing your job, even if you don't have to make saves.

"Ivar has done very well and the defenders are sound. They don't have to be pretty players, they are there to defend, and that is all summed up by the way you see Danny Cullip play.

"He is a no frills person and yet then again he will suddenly do a step over or something like that and surprise us."

Cullip was probably the one surprised when Beasant exchanged verbal pleasantries with him during a recent match.

The veteran custodian is not afraid to put his point across. "If things have to be sorted out they have to be sorted out," he said. "We're grown men and we just get on with it."

Palace's visit is the first of four vital home matches left for Albion. Preston arrive in three weeks time, then fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday on Easter Monday and FA Cup semi-finalists Watford at the end of next month.

That certainly looks easier than an away programme of Reading and Leicester, climaxing with a potential relegation decider at Grimsby on the final Sunday.

Beasant is cautiously optimistic Albion can finish above the Mariners, Wednesday and Stoke, although he admitted: "You can never really say. It seems like it is one out of the four.

"There is still a bit of a gap to the ones that are just above us, so we have got to make sure we are fourth-bottom.

"You cannot take anything for granted now, because everyone is fighting for their lives."

Beasant's professionalism is such that he certainly won't take his place for granted once Kuipers returns from the injury which has sidelined the Dutchman since the FA cup exit at Norwich in January.

Boss Steve Coppell revealed: "Michel is not far off now. Kicking is the final part of the equation.

"He is as fit as a fiddle, but you have to accept there is a specific weakness there."

The loss of Bobby Zamora for Tuesday's showdown against Coppell's old club is offset to a degree by the absence of Andy Johnson from the Palace ranks with a more severely torn hamstring, which has ruled out the ex-Birmingham striker for six weeks.

Johnson hit a hat-trick and Paul Brooker was uncharacteristically red carded in Albion's numbing 5-0 defeat at Selhurst Park in October.

Brooker, fresh from three goals in the last five Withdean games, is gunning for revenge. "I had a run where I couldn't score at home in the last couple of seasons, but I've got a few at home now which is nice," he said.

"I don't care who scores as long as we get another three points."