Albion goal king Bobby Zamora has revealed how his nerve has been tested by the worst injury of his career.

He is relieved to be back spearheading the Seagulls' attack after six weeks out but admits he is still some way short of full match fitness.

Zamora links up again with Graham Barrett at Watford tomorrow after scoring on his return in last Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Grimsby.

"It's just nice to be back in the swing of things," he said. "I thought it would only be a week or two but it just dragged on. Hopefully I am over it now.

"It just gets on your nerves, but there's not much you can do. During the game it doesn't go through your mind until you get a knock. I had one little twinge, but apart from that I tried to keep off it.

"I've been out virtually the whole season so far, but I will keep working to get back to proper match fitness and back to my old ways."

Zamora made his last away appearance at Burnley on the opening day, when he was on target in a 3-1 win.

The rock-bottom Seagulls have only a home draw against Coventry and nine successive League defeats to show for their efforts since then, although the Grimsby match was the first time they have been behind with Zamora on the pitch.

"The results were disappointing while I was out, but we've had a few injuries," he said. "Hopefully we can all get back together, dig in and get the results that we want.

"It was very frustrating watching. You can see the lads are giving 100 per cent and so as long as we keep on doing that things have got to turn.

"You haven't got to be a brain surgeon to work out that it's going to be hard, but we will keep working at it. We can definitely move away from the relegation zone. We've got great team spirit and that can take you a long way."

Manager Martin Hinshelwood had Shaun North, a close friend from Portsmouth's youth department, watching training yesterday.

Paul Kitson, Nathan Jones, Robbie Pethick and Geoff Pitcher are still injured so the squad again includes youngsters Adam Virgo, Dean Hammond and Daniel Marney, all of whom finished the Grimsby game.

Hinshelwood said: "I've got a picture in my mind of my best side and we are working towards that. When we get that then judge me on those results."

Follow tomorrow's crunch game at Vicarage Road at thisisthealbion.co.uk