PAUL ARMSTRONG is poised for his first appearance of the season for Albion against Torquay at Gillingham tomorrow.

The Irish youngster has not played since suffering a severe dead leg in a friendly at Crawley five weeks ago.

But boss Brian Horton is ready to throw Armstrong straight in.

"He's a very fit lad," said Horton. "He's worked very hard and he's joined in games in training over the last week. He will play if he is okay."

Armstrong is earmarked for the right wingback role in place of the axed Peter Smith as the Seagulls search for their first victory.

Central defender Glen Thomas is also left out of a 15-man squad, although his absence is due as much to a lack of match fitness and the availability of two rivals as his double blunder at Brentford last Saturday.

Ross Johnson has now fully recovered from a hamstring strain and captain Gary Hobson is back in contention following a back injury.

Horton wants his team to keep the feelgood factor going after residents conceded defeat in their bid to block the Withdean move and the Reserves opened their home campaign with a convincing win.

Albion are next-to-bottom with just one point from three matches and only Monday's hosts Scarborough below them, but Horton insists: "It's not a crisis because we are not playing that badly. We've just got to cut out elementary mistakes.

"We've got to start winning games, we know that. The lads are in good spirits, I'm in good spirits, we've had good news with Withdean and the Reserves and we have got to lift ourselves."

Torquay have injury doubts about Summer signings Robbie Herrera (Achilles) and Brian McGorry (thigh).

Albion (from): Walton; Armstrong, Atkinson, Johnson, Allan, Hobson, Culverhouse, Minton, Bennett, Mayo, Barker, Moralee, Hart, Storer, Ansah.

Torquay (from): Veysey; Gurney, Herrera, Thomas, Watson, Robinson, McGorry, Hapgood, Clayton, Leadbitter, Hill, Partridge, Bedeau, Tully, McFarlane, Hadley, Newell.

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