Albion boss Steve Coppell has urged his side to follow the shock example set by fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday in order to revive their survival hopes.

The 2-0 home defeat by Preston at the weekend means the Seagulls are still in the bottom three ahead of Saturday's trip to new leaders Leicester.

Wednesday moved off the foot of the table with a dramatic 2-1 victory against deposed table-toppers Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Just four points now divide the bottom four with four games to go after Stoke and Grimsby were also beaten.

Coppell said: "The most critical point is how a team reacts to defeat. The ball was in our court on Saturday. We were at home. We have now got to bounce back the way we have done on a number of occasions this year.

"Credit to Sheffield Wednesday. It just shows now the League table means nothing when there is so much at stake and so much to play for.

"Sheffield have had their knocks recently. They've come back and taken the biggest scalp of the lot away from home. Who would have expected that? Absolutely nobody.

"It has got to be our task now to get a similar kind of result at Leicester and then at home against Sheffield Wednesday, which is obviously a massive game.

"If we play the way we did against Reading then, yes, we can avoid relegation. If we play the way we did against Preston in passages on Saturday then no."

Goals by Michael Jackson and Richard Cresswell in the last 19 minutes ended Albion's unbeaten five-match home run and a sequence of four successive clean sheets at Withdean.

In-between Preston boss Craig Brown was dimissed from the dugout for encroaching onto the pitch to protest when ref Len Cable rejected strong penalty appeals for a challenge by keeper Dave Beasant on Pawel Abbott.

Brown believes the Seagulls can still beat the drop. The former Scotland coach said: "I've always felt Brighton will not go down and the other results, apart from Sheffield Wednesday, were favourable."

Centre half Dean Blackwell was sidelined by an ankle injury for the second match running.

Beasant suffered a whack in the ribs late on but insisted afterwards he will be fit for Saturday's showdown at the Walkers Stadium.

Leicester, managed by ex-Albion boss Micky Adams, will already be promoted by then if Sheffield United fail to pick up all three points at home to Nottingham Forest tomorrow night.

The Foxes, needing to win at Rotherham on Saturday to guarantee their place in the Premiership, were held to a 1-1 draw which was enough to ease them above Portsmouth by a point.

Adams said: "It won't be easy against Brighton. I know them well and they play with a lot of pride, just like Rotherham did.

"They won't lay down and die, so I will take promotion any way it comes at the moment."

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