Albion missed a chance to turn up the heat on table-topping Chesterfield when they lost to Southend.

Victory would have taken the Seagulls to within a point of Nicky Law's pacesetters.

Fulham were always there or thereabouts when Micky Adams guided them to promotion.

Albion, by contrast, have moved into contention after a slow start to the season.

They had only three teams below them at the end of August and did not climb to second until mid-October.

Adams said: "At Fulham we were top or second. I don't think Chesterfield have been under too much pressure yet.

"The pressure comes when teams can overtake you. All of a sudden you are looking around at other results then.

"The gap was eight or nine points and now it is down to four. At the moment I am quite happy to be in second place."

Adams is reluctant to pinpoint the challengers to Albion's promotion ambitions.

"All the teams are challengers," he said. "I am never comfortable in the games we are playing. If we dip below the standards we have set ourselves it is not going to be easy.

"We are not the finished article by any means. We lost two games recently and the confidence gets slightly affected. I saw that at Fulham as well. That is Third Division football for you."

"Fair credit to the lads. They bounced back well against Exeter and Barnet and the good thing is we are not drawing too many games either."