It may have been instantly forgettable for another crammed Withdean crowd, but Chris McPhee will remember this bore draw forever.

The kid from Eastbourne emerged with credit from the massive task of deputising for Bobby Zamora on his full League debut.

It goes without saying that Albion missed their 26-goal star. They failed to score at Withdean for the first time in 13 months, but that wasn't just McPhee's fault.

The Seagulls were collectively off colour. The service to him was poor and he fought a lone battle through the middle up front for two thirds of a dour deadlock.

Lee Steele, popular with sections of supporters, was introduced for the last third to lend McPhee more support as boss Peter Taylor switched from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2.

Steele did little in that time to suggest he should have started and suffice to say it is not just purely for football reasons that the second top scorer with eight goals has been out in the cold recently.

As if replacing Zamora was not in itself a big enough challenge McPhee also found himself up against Dennis Lawrence, Wrexham's 6ft.7ins centre half from Trinidad and Tobago, and the six-foot plus Brian Carey.

Much to McPhee's relief Carey was forced off inside the opening half-hour with nasty ankle and leg cuts.

Wrexham manager Denis Smith, an injury-plagued stopper for Stoke in his playing days, joked: "You couldn't see the bone, so they weren't proper ones!"

McPhee only had bones to feed on, but the 18-year-old was justifiably satisfied with his first League appearance since the four he made as a substitute two seasons ago.

"He (Zamora) is different class," McPhee said. "His movement is great, his touch is great and he scores goals.

"I was told to play the same role as Bobby and when the ball was deep to spin into holes to try and get in behind them.

"I won a few headers but not many. He (Lawrence) was huge and I was glad when the other one went off with an injury."

Taylor maintained his reputation for giving youth a chance by choosing McPhee and he had no regrets.

"I deliberately went to see him play recently in a youth game and I just liked his movement," Taylor explained.

"For me he was the choice in the end and I am very happy with that."

McPhee could have done with a bit more help from his more experienced colleagues, but they never really got going.

It was another windswept day, a churned up pitch was not exactly conducive to fluency and a determined Wrexham made life extremely difficult.

They came closer to ending the suffocating stalemate. A first-half free-kick by Alex Ferguson's son Darren was tipped over by Michel Kuipers and towards the end Craig Faulconbridge beat Kuipers to the ball with a header which Simon Morgan cleared off the line.

Kuipers also had a let-off after 20 minutes. He failed to control a backpass from Robbie Pethick and had to dive on the ball to stop it rolling in.

Ferguson's resulting free-

kick from the edge of the six-yard box was charged down.

Taylor said: "I did ask the officials on that and they said it's not a definite booking, it's down to the referee.

"They are the silly little things you have got to cut out. It was an unnecessary pass back and if Michel was an opening batsman he would be straight out. He was nowhere near behind the ball."

Albion's best spell came immediately after that break, when they pressed forward with greater conviction.

Paul Watson wasted a good chance, lifting the rebound narrowly over the bar from ten yards when Wrexham's under-employed Norwegian keeper Marius Rovde could only parry Richard Carpenter's long-range drive.

Three-goal Watson was the most prolific Albion player on the pitch at that point after Gary Hart turned an ankle to give David Lee his debut for the club.

Taylor admitted: "It was a frustrating afternoon. I think it was a fair result. Both teams cancelled each other out.

"Wrexham showed their passion by getting a point here and not many teams have done that. We have won five and drawn one of our last six home games and if somebody offered me that for the next six I'd take it.

"Overall it wasn't a particularly good performance, but give credit to Wrexham."

Smith was pleased with a clean sheet for the side with the worst defensive record in the Second Division but disappointed that the Welshmen didn't take all three points.

"I wanted to win," he said. "We looked at their team on paper and they are good solid pros, but they didn't have anything better than we've got."

It wasn't all bad for Albion. Results elsewhere generally went their way yet again and would have been even better had Brentford and Huddersfield not snatched last-minute winners.

"We've still got to be very careful," Taylor added. "We've got another couple of massive games coming up but if we can keep picking up points Bobby is back on March 5."