Charlie Oatway has vowed to continue his combative contribution to Albion's promotion fight.

The hard-man midfielder is available again for Saturday's key visit to Kidderminster Harriers following his fourth suspension for the Seagulls.

You can rest assured Oatway will not be shirking any challenges at Aggborough Stadium. That just isn't his style.

"I can't change," he said. "It's part of my natural game to be like that. If I tried to change it would take the majority of my game away, so I couldn't afford to do it.

"I would be out of the team and the gaffer would put someone in who could do that job."

Oatway was red carded at Darlington last season and later banned for collecting five bookings, but he was sometimes sinned against rather than the sinner.

Take the last match of last season against Carlisle for example. Richard Prokas, guilty of a horror tackle on Arsenal's Patrick Vieira in the FA Cup last Saturday, had Oatway in a headlock and was sent-off.

Oatway saw red again in unfortunate circumstances at Chesterfield this season before eight appearances without attracting the attention of the referee.

He finally picked up his fifth caution against Exeter just before Christmas, which should have ruled him out of last Saturday's postponement against Lincoln.

Instead he had to sit and suffer through Albion's penalty shoot-out exit from the LDV Vans Trophy against his old club Brentford on Tuesday.

What is it like watching rather than playing? "You can look at it in a couple of ways," said Oatway. "You have always got niggling injuries, so it's maybe good to have a rest.

"But watching is just a killer, especially against one of my old sides. It does hurt.

"When you are on the brink of a ban you think about it before the game and about what match you would miss, but as soon as you get out there you forget about it and throw yourself into tackles like you normally would.

"The only time you think about it during the game is if the ref calls you over. You start pleading with him then!"

Oatway knows his place is by no mean guaranteed at Kidderminster. Bobby Zamora was only on the bench for the New Year's Day defeat by Southend after serving a one-match ban.

"He (Micky Adams) has done it before with me and he has done it with Bobby," Oatway said. "He insists to the players if you play well enough and get the right result you keep the shirt and rightly so. There are no different rules for anyone."

Oatway, 27, has become a firm favourite with fans since joining Albion from Brentford in a £30,000 double deal with Paul Watson two summers ago.

He has fallen in love with the club and the area to such an extent that he asked for an extension to his contract. That was granted earlier this season, stretching his three-year deal by a year to June 2003.

"To be honest it was me seeing the gaffer, not the gaffer seeing me," Oatway revealed. "I asked for an extension at the end of last season.

""The season didn't start that brightly for us, so he couldn't go up stairs and knock on the door.

"I had to wait until we started doing well, then I went to see the gaffer again and he was fine.

"The chairman (Dick Knight) was great as well. He is down to earth with the players. When you see him he wants to spend time talking to you, not like the rest of the chairman I've had!

"He is a diamond, so it was an easy decision for me. I am very happy with the club and the way everything is going. The kids and the missus are settled and I've just signed a new contract.

"We under-achieved last season and a couple of results lately have not been the best, but at the beginning of the season we would have settled for where we are now and the points we've got."

When Hammersmith-born Oatway joined Albion the Argus revealed they had signed the biggest name in English football. His real name is not Charlie at all.

His family are all mad Queens Park Rangers fans, so he was christened Anthony Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James Oatway after the Rangers stars of the Seventies.

Oatway has already been ribbing his realtives about the prospect of Albion facing relegation-threatened Rangers in the Second Division next season.

"Normally I hope QPR get three points, but I am looking now and hoping they lose so I've got a chance of playing them next season.

"That would be a great bonus, although not for my family."