Mark McCammon launched his bid for a return to Championship contention for Albion at Horsham last night.

The big centre-forward played the entire two hours in the Reserves' 1-0 extra-time exit from the Sussex Senior Cup.

It was McCammon's first outing for four months following ankle surgery. He has not started a Championship match since a half-time row with manager Mark McGhee at Burnley in April. He last appeared as a substitute in the Seagulls' 0-0 draw at Preston at the end of August.

Conditions at Queen Street were hardly ideal for McCammon's comeback. A bumpy pitch was turned into a quagmire from the second half onwards by incessant, heavy rain.

McCammon's inactivity showed in front of goal. He missed the target early on from a Kerry Mayo cross and fired over on the turn from 15 yards on the hour mark.

McCammon's best chance to make a goal-scoring return came in the 100th minute but he was off target again from a cross by Dean Cox.

That miss proved costly as Lee Carney clinched a memorable victory for Horsham with the only goal of the game four minutes later.

The midfielder exchanged passes with Florian Mateos to slot past Florent Chaigneau.

Keeper Gary Elliott was the Horsham hero. He made a handful of fine saves, including one right at the end from Paul Hinshelwood when Albion's young substitute was clean through.

Alexis Nicolas was taken off towards the end of normal time. He is likely to be on the bench again for the Seagulls at table-topping Reading on Saturday.

Horsham: Elliott; Graves, French, Howard, Geard; Mateos, Hawthorne, Walker, Carney, Charman; Taylor. Subs: Hudak for Walker (69),Berry for Charman (90), Cant, Farley, Frankland.

Albion Reserves: Chaigneau; T. Elphick, G. Elphick, Mountford; May, Breach, Nicolas, Mayo; Carey, McCammon, Cox. Subs: Leach for Mountford (46), Chamberlain for Nicolas (82), P. Hinshelwood for Carey (84).

Albion will host Port Vale in the next stage of the FA Youth Cup.

Vale beat Grimsby 3-2 last night to earn a third round tie with the young Seagulls at Bognor next Wednesday (7pm).