Albion struggle to find a striker

Burnley's visit to Withdean next Tuesday coincides with the closure of the January transfer window and Albion are running out of time to land a player with the pedigree to lead the cash-strapped Seagulls to Championship safety.

They have identified several forward targets, regarded as equivalent to what they already have.

Chairman Dick Knight is faced with the prospect of sanctioning a temporary relaxation of the club's tight wage structure in a bid to land the type of player on a short-term basis that could make the difference between staying up or going down.

McGhee was due to watch Crawley's game at Dagenham and Redbridge last night but the match was postponed.

Members of his backroom staff were out at Conference and Premiership reserve team matches.

"Strikers are all we're looking at but the situation is not great," he said. "We've got a list of half-a-dozen strikers who, with the right determination, we could go and get one or two of today but they are all more or less the same type and at the same stage as what we've got.

"We think the thing that is really going to make a difference to us is someone experienced who is not only the type of player to hold the ball up and bring others into play but has also got the character to lead from the front and dictate to the other striker, tell them where to be and when and command their attention.

"That is what we need, somebody of character. We are finding that difficult to find and when we speak to other people they all say the same thing, that those sort of players are not around."

One English-based player fitting the bill is destined for a move to a bigger club, so Albion are likely to look abroad again after losing out to Derby for former Polish international Marcin Zewlakow.

McGhee added: "If the worst comes to worst we hope we can still go and get one or two of those on our list, so we are still hopeful that we will bring someone in but it won't necessarily be absolutely the guy we've been looking for. It would be a missed opportunity if we bring nobody in."

The Reserves, weather permitting, have a hastily rearranged fixture against Colchester at Layer Road today after last night's match against Wycombe at Worthing was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

With the training pitches at Falmer affected by frost as well, Albion have been making use of the state-of-the-art artificial surface at Waterhall, home of Brighton rugby club.

Leftbacks Joel Lynch and Kerry Mayo have both suffered slight ankle twists in training this week but the injuries are not expected to jeopardise their chances of being involved against Burnley.

The Seagulls will go into that match still out of the relegation zone after Leicester lost 1-0 at Plymouth last night.