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Brighton wrestle with the home truths behind Coppell's departure as Burley struggles to overcome injury crisis at Derby

Having Taken such a battering in the polls over the last six months, Tony Blair's Government might like to know there is a sure-fire way to claw back some support, from one part of the country, at least.

Give the go-ahead to Brighton's new stadium after the public inquiry that resumes next week and the stock of Blair and company on the south coast will receive an instant boost.

Six years since they played their last game at the Goldstone Ground, the Seagulls remain a club without a home and the chairman, Dick Knight, said this week that the prolonged wrangling over the proposed £40m new ground at Falmer, just outside Brighton, had cost the club its last three managers.

Steve Coppell joined Micky Adams and Peter Taylor in quitting the Albion when he accepted the chance to fill the vacancy at Reading, which leaves his old side top of the Second Division but with the assistant manager, Bob Booker, at the helm when they host Grimsby today.

"Once again this club is facing the reality of losing a third high-profile manager, people who have flourished with Albion, because of our new stadium, or lack of it," Knight said. "This club will never realise its full potential until we get to Falmer. It is absolutely vital that John Prescott and the Government give us the green light."

A win for Brighton today would keep them top of the Second Division as they seek a successor to Coppell. They will be helped if Port Vale, beaten at Wrexham last week, come unstuck again at Oldham, whose manager, Iain Dowie, is a contender for the Brighton post.

In the First Division, Derby will hope to avoid revisiting a nightmare when they take on Wigan at Pride Park, where Paul Jewell's team, the highest-placed side in action in a vastly reduced programme, can regain pole position if they win by a two-goal margin.

The game takes the Wigan striker Nathan Ellington back to the scene of the performance that put him on the map. As a Bristol Rovers player, the "Duke" hit a hat-trick at Pride Park to send Derby, then of the Premiership, crashing out of the FA Cup in January 2002. The game paved the way for Ellington's £1.2m transfer to progressive Wigan and hurried the then Derby manager, Colin Todd, towards the sack.

The latest Derby manager, George Burley, does not yet fear dismissal, but with his small squad hit by injuries, he is worried about another defeat after Don Hutchison's last-minute goal cost them a point at home to West Ham.

The striker Junior is the latest casualty, out for up to six months with ligament damage, spurring Burley into a so-far fruitless search for loan cover. Izale McLeod has undergone a cartilage operation and Mathias Svensson is likely to be ruled out by an ankle injury.

Peter Taylor's Hull City, the country's top scorers with 30 goals from 12 games, expect to build on that record at home to bottom-of-the-table Carlisle United tomorrow and consolidate their position as Third Division leaders.