Albion must find a way to replace their captain fantastic to keep alive their hopes of cup glory this season.

Assistant manager Dean White admits the banned Dean Hammond will be badly missed at Bristol City tonight in the southern section semi-finals of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

But White reckons the return of Dean Cox could swing the tie in the Seagulls' favour.

Hammond has missed only one match all season, when illness forced him out of the 3-1 home defeat by Yeovil on Boxing Day.

The influential central midfielder was one of Albion's best players in Saturday's 3-0 FA Cup exit at West Ham but is suspended tonight after accumulating five bookings.

White said: "I thought Dean had a fantastic game on Saturday.

"He was instrumental in everything that was good about us and we'll miss him.

"We'll have to shuffle things around a bit and compensate for certain things he does that somebody else won't do."

Cox will be fired up after missing the West Ham clash due to a controversial fifth yellow card of the campaign for diving in last month's 2-1 home defeat by Carlisle.

White said: "We have Dean Cox coming back, who has been very good for us this year as well.

"He has scored a lot of goals, made a lot of goals and made loads of good things happen for us. You lose one and you gain one.

"We think we can beat them with the team we've got. Coxy's back and we'll just get on with it."

Tonight's tussle is subject to a midday pitch inspection, due to persistent heavy rain in the West Country.