Albion 1, Port Vale 0: There is just no pleasing a small minority of Albion fans.

Micky Adams was sent hate mail when he left for Leicester and Brian Horton was promised a frosty reception on his return to the club with Vale.

As it turned out he received a standing ovation and the anger was vented instead towards the Albion players.

They were booed off at half time. Forty five minutes later they were back on top of the table.

No wonder Peter Taylor was a touch bemused. "I was a little bit disappointed with some fans who booed a few players at half time," he said. "That to me is unnecessary.

"I know how much they love Brighton, but there are 23 other teams in this division who want to beat you and it's a hard match every Saturday.

"You are not always going to get the performance you are looking for. The players work as hard as they possibly can and that is why the club is in a decent position. I know they mean well, but at times they get a little bit too frustrated."

Richard Carpenter was similarly puzzled. The powerful midfielder revealed: "It was mentioned at half time. The fans expect a lot.

"We have come a long way and are sitting on top of the Second Division after coming up from the Third.

"No one can take it away from the fans, because they are superb. It's not something we want to hear as players, but if they are frustrated they pay their money and nobody can stop them from doing that. We just have to get on with our jobs.

"If we were at the bottom of the League and not playing well and not giving the fans what they wanted I could understand it. As a group of players we work our socks off.

"The Colchester game was very similar. We are not going to have it all our own way in this League like perhaps we did in the Third Division, so it's a big test for us but at the moment we are coping with it quite well."

There is a discernible difference between the home and away support. The travelling fans are more noisy and passionate.

At Withdean they have been spoilt: 15 wins out of 16, at least one Albion goal in every game since New Year's Day and not a Saturday defeat since January 2000.

When things don't go quite according to plan, as was the case in the first half against lowly Vale, they become subdued and tetchy.

They had better start getting used to it, because there are bound to be a few more scrappy matches like this over the next few months.

Taylor said: "Teams are going to come here with a plan to make sure we don't get another result.

"They are going to try and make it awkward and Port Vale certainly did that, so you are never always going to get the game you want to play yourselves.

"Sometimes you just have to be quite hard and frustrating to play against and I think that's what we were.

"Brian (Horton) knows what he is doing. He organised them and they won a lot of headers and challenges and a couple of players caused us problems, but that is always going to happen. It's a tough division.

"People have got to understand you are not always going to play the way you want to and you have good and bad days. It wasn't a particularly brilliant day, but it ended up with a great result.

"In a crazy way it is sometimes better for me to see the players play poorly. You learn about your players when they are up against it and things are not going so well."

Bobby Zamora was one of those some way below his best. Perhaps he was conscious of the slight hamstring injury which had made him doubtful, but he still ended up the hero.

His far post header from strike partner Lee Steele's penetrating left wing cross four minutes into the second half brought up his half century.

He has an astonishing strike rate of a goal every one and a half games and in case anyone should doubt Zamora's extraordinary value to Albion's promotion challenge consider this.

Of the nine League outings they have won by the odd goal this season he has been on target in seven of them. One goal has been enough in each of the last three matches and there are no prizes for guessing who has scored all of them.

"It's lovely," Taylor acknowledged. "That's where he is important. I've said all along if we can keep clean sheets there is always a chance one of our strikers will score and thankfully Bobby did it again."

Vale, well organised and workmanline, never really looked like equalising and it is now five hours and 17 minutes since the Seagulls last conceded in the League, at Notts County.

Horton said: "It was a negative performance from us. We didn't get forward enough or want to go past people enough.

"We did all right in the first half and the crowd were quiet and apprehensive. I'm just disappointed we didn't take it on. We didn't play in the second half. We were happy to be second best."

Albion will be second best in the table again by tomorrow night should Vale's Potteries rivals Stoke prevail at Wigan.

Even the moaning minority would surely settle for that if they are still there when the sides meet again at Vale Park next April in the final fixture of the season.