Albion's fringe men get a chance to stake a claim as Bobby Zamora's stand-in at Worthing tonight.

Boss Peter Taylor will be at Woodside Road to watch the reserves in action against one of his former clubs Gillingham (7.0).

The match offers an opportunity for the likes of Paul Rogers, Charlie Oatway, Lee Steele and rookie forward Chris McPhee to press for a place against Wrexham at Withdean on Saturday, when Zamora begins a three-match ban.

"That is what I am looking at," Taylor said. "That is still available."

The identity of Zamora's replacement will be affected by the system Taylor decides to play. If he sticks to 4-3-3 then Junior Lewis is favourite to take over Zamora's role as a lone central striker.

That could create a midfield vacancy for candidates such as Rogers, Oatway or Nathan Jones, who impressed for an hour when the reserves hammered Hassocks 8-1 on Monday night in the Sussex Senior Cup.

A switch back to 4-4-2 would strengthen the chances of Steele or McPhee playing up front. Taylor said: "We might have to think about going more 4-4-2. That is one of the problems.

"I've actually quite liked us doing the 4-3-3 in the last couple of games, but Bobby is very important to that and that is why we are going to miss him.

"If he was just a goalscorer he wouldn't be as tired as he was two weeks ago. He is everything else as well."

Taylor still has the option of drafting in a front man on loan but he is concerned about utilising the maximum of two permitted at any one time with Lewis borrowed from Leicester for the rest of the season.

"I am making enquiries but I am not going berserk with it," Taylor said. "If there is somebody that really catches my eye I'll do it but I am a little bit concerned about using up all the loans. That is the balancing act I've got."

Cardiff moved up three places to eighth last night with a 1-0 home win against Bury under new Brighton-born boss Lennie Lawrence. He has taken charge following the resignation of former Albion assistant Alan Cork.

Oldham are still seventh after a 1-1 home draw with Tranmere, while Wycombe suffered a surprise 4-1 defeat at home to Blackpool.

Wrexham have returned around 400 tickets from their allocation for Saturday's match. These now go on sale to home supporters from 10am this morning at the ticket office in Queens Road.

Albion's initial allocation of 1,980 tickets for the match at Reading on March 9 has been sold out.