Chris Hughton has told his Albion side to up their game for a tough run-in.

The Seagulls are preparing for a trip to rock bottom Rotherham after the 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest yesterday.

They remain six points clear of third-placed Huddersfield, who lost at home to Newcastle but still have a game in hand.

But Leeds are closing the gap and will host Albion at Elland Road next month.

Hughton said: “This is a tough period for us but we knew that.

“We know there are a group of teams behind us who are going to get a lot of wins.

“Seeing Leeds (on Friday) and results (yesterday), they are going to get a lot of wins.

“We need to make sure we get back on track on Tuesday night and for the rest of the season.

“It won’t be easy, everyone is pushing and we need to show what we have been showing for the bulk of the season.”

Leeds are seven points behind Albion after Friday’s win at Birmingham.

Reading are now eight adrift thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 home win over Wolves.

Although post-match talk at the City Ground centred on Forest’s controversial first goal, Hughton was also disappointed with his side’s attacking work and with the concession of two soft goals late on.

He said: “The second and third goals were bad goals and probably it was a reflection of our performance.

“I can’t generally say we deserved to win the game.

“We needed to test them more once we got into good areas in that last period (at 1-0 down).

“We needed to test them more. We needed to make better choices.

“It certainly wasn’t through lack of trying in that last period.

“But we needed to show more over the 90 minutes.”