Guy Butters today urged supporters to "stick with us" as injury-hit Albion try to repair their winless start to the season.

The Seagulls' senior statesman insists Mark McGhee's young side are working hard to put things right and need fans to be understanding.

Albion's relegation two seasons ago was the first of Butters' 16-year career as a professional.

The veteran former Gillingham and Portsmouth stopper, 35 in October, reckons it is far too early to write the team off.

Butters, on target in Tuesday's defeat by Bristol Rovers, declared: "We are just saying stick with us.

"We have got a really young side, people like Jake Robinson who is only 17.

"We have got to get things into perspective. We have brought in a few new faces, young lads who are untried in the League.

"It's a learning process, not only for the players but the supporters and the manager as well.

"It's unfortunate really that we've had so little time to prepare for it. Ideally we would like to have ten games under our belt to let everyone settle and blend in, but we know we haven't got that much time.

"Hopefully fans can be a bit patient with us. We are trying to put things right on the training pitch.

"We are not going to get too downhearted at the moment. We know if we play to our full potential then we should cause teams problems at Withdean."

Butters, widely experienced at First Division level, says which ever 11 players take the field against Preston on Saturday must pull together.

"Everyone has got to be at the races. We cannot have three or four perform, everybody has got to be at it.

"That is the only way we are going to win games in this division.

"We are coming up against teams a class above what we were used to last year and any little mistakes are punished, as we have found to our cost.

"I think it was probably one of our strongest performances this season at Wigan last Saturday and yet we were spanked 3-0."