The biggest game of the season

Victory will not only stretch the Seagulls' lead at the top but also extend the gap between them and opponents he regards as serious candidates for the Second Division championship.

"I have told the players I think this is their biggest game of the season," revealed Taylor. "Reading are definitely title contenders and if we win it puts us eight points clear of them, which would be a superb position."

Albion have achieved eight victories out of 12 under Taylor, their only defeat coming in extra time at Cambridge United in the LDV Vans Trophy.

Six of those wins have been by the odd goal and it is this ability to chisel out results without being at their best which has kept them ahead of the pack.

Taylor said: "The players lost a manager (Micky Adams), but they have got on with their jobs. We've had a brilliant run, with games when we have played superbly and games when we have played poorly.

"When that happens you have got to be hard to play against and that is what we have been. Since I have been here the players have given everything they have got."

Taylor faces the rare headache of reshuffling to cope with the absence of two regulars. A knee injury sustained in training this week sidelines leftback Kerry Mayo, while a dead leg rules out right-sided striker Gary Hart.

Robbie Pethick is a certain starter and Lee Steele could return to bolster record-breaking Bobby Zamora's bid to score for his tenth match running.

Daniel Webb, Albion's new teenage striker from Southend, will be among the replacements.

"If Kerry and Gary were fit they would both have played, so it upsets our plans," added Taylor. "It's a bit of a blow, but the nice thing is the players coming in have a point to prove."

Reading will jump, all be it fleetingly, from fifth to second if they become the first team to topple Albion in the league since Brentford in Adams' last match in charge, also on a Friday night at Withdean at the beginning of October.

Manager Alan Pardew, alarmed by a hat-trick of defeats and a leaking defence since winning the manager of the month award for November, gives a debut to American goalkeeping giant Marcus Hahnermann on loan from Fulham.

Second-placed Stoke entertain seventh-placed Wycombe tomorrow while Brentford host Wrexham.