Manager Micky Adams has hit out at the club's former marksman Richard Barker for criticising his team.

Barker was unimpressed when he played against the Seagulls for Macclesfield earlier in the season, then watched them lose at Mansfield.

Speaking in last Saturday's Sports Argus, he said: "I tipped them for promotion or at least the play-offs, but having played them at our place I am not surprised by their position. I didn't think much of them. I saw them play at Mansfield as well and I didn't think much of them there either."

Those remarks have riled Adams ahead of tonight's Withdean clash against mid-table Macclesfield. "I am a bit disappointed by the comments of Barker," he said. "I think he's a bit naughty."

The prolific Barker is ruled out of the reunion by a recurrence of ankle ligament damage, but his old partner Gary Hart returns for Albion from a one-match ban.

Charlie Oatway plays after recovering from a stomach bug which led to him being taken off towards the end of last Saturday's 3-1 win at Lincoln, but a knee injury continues to delay Keith McPherson's 500th League appearance.

Adams accepts the Seagulls were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw when the sides met at Moss Rose in November and he remains reluctant to talk up the possibility of mounting a late play-off challenge. "We will go above them if we win and that is the target," he said.

Meanwhile, Adams is still optimistic about signing a striker on loan before Thursday's transfer deadline.

Albion (from): Walton; Watson, Mayo, Crosby, Cullip, Brooker, Rogers, Oatway, Thomas, Freeman, Hart, Ramsay, Carr, Aspinall, McPhee, Campbell, Ormerod.

Macclesfield (from) Williams, Rioch, Abbey, Tinson, Moore, Ware, Wood, Durkan, Askey, Whitehead, Munroe, Tomlinson, O'Neill, Bamber, Davenport, Martin.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.