From the glamour of the Millennium Stadium to a more sedate summer evening in Worthing, Leon Knight is hooked on scoring goals.

The spot-kick hero of that nerve-jangling afternoon in Cardiff picked up last night where he left off in May with the first two goals of Albion's traditional pre-season opener at Woodside Road.

Then, while just about everyone else played down the significance of the result and concentrated on the importance of gaining match fitness, last season's 27-goal marksman admitted it would drive him mad if he did not hit the target in pre-season.

Knight said: "It's always nice to score goals as a striker whether it's in pre-season or the end of the season.

"If I don't score in the friendlies it gets to me.

"Last year I scored in every single friendly and I just want to do that this season.

"It gets you in good spirits for the season coming up, even though I'm missing the first three games."

Knight, whose strikes on 29 and 73 minutes were followed by an unfortunate Marc Pullan own goal to round off a convincing Albion win, will miss the first three games of the Championship assault through suspension.

When he comes back he will set himself high goalscoring standards again next term, though quite how high no one knows.

He said: "I always set targets for myself. I never tell anyone what they are but I'll tell you whether I've reached them or not and I won't lie."

Everyone knows Knight can score goals, just as they realise Albion are well-served in goal and at fullback and have two experienced goalkeepers fighting for a first team spot.

All that was underlined last night as boss Mark McGhee, his hands no longer tied by the short-lived six substitutions guideline, gave 19 players a run out.

Paul Watson and Kerry Mayo got first crack at fullback, with Dan Harding in central midfield, while Michel Kuipers and Ben Roberts had a half apiece in goal.

Up front, though, is where questions remain answered.

Last season, Knight was helped by Darius Henderson, Chris McPhee, Trevor Benjamin and Chris Iwelumo in a series of little-and-large partnerships.

Last night it was more a case of little and littler as he teamed up with Jake Robinson.

McGhee remains tight-lipped as to the identity and potential of the hitmen he has on trial but hopes to watch them at Woking on Friday or Crawley on Saturday.

He said: "We are waiting for clearance and if we get it we'll play them.

"We've got a team who'll play on Friday night and get most of the 90 minutes and then on Saturday a different team will get 90 minutes.

"After the weekend they will all have had one-and-half games. Some might have two or two-and-a-half, so that will be a good start for them."

These friendlies also do no harm as public relations exercises, as was proved by a packed main stand at Woodside last night and a steady flow of autograph requests.

It was so busy Albion chairman Dick Knight had to sit on a concrete step in the stand when he arrived not long after kick-off.

A cushion was handed to him from the press box and things were just as comfortable for his namesake Leon when Albion went ahead just before the half hour.

The goal came just as the Seagulls were getting on top and saw Knight confidently drive the ball low past Will Packham after David Lee had expertly fed his run between the centre backs.

Packham had already made decent saves from Mayo and Nathan Jones but his best stop came just after the opening goal when he got down sharply to thwart Mayo again.

Kuipers made a sharp save from a Sam Francis header, though he was almost embarrassed early on when he was beaten to a long ball by Mark Knee, whose shot was off target.

Worthing fullback Chris Dicker went even closer though at his own end when a miscued clearance from outside the penalty area flew over Packham and hit a post.

Packham did well to block a Lee volley after the break but will be unhappy that he let Knight's fierce 20-yard left-footer squirm away from him for the second goal having initially got down well to seemingly have the shot covered.

Pullan, Rebels' summer signing from Crawley, then watched in despair as his attempted clearance from the chasing John Piercy bounced into an unguarded net four minutes from time as substitute goalkeeper Ronan Callaghan made an ill-advised sortie from goal.

At the other end, Francis went close with a second-half header and showed no lack of confidence, twice trying his luck from outside the box and even looking to run straight through Danny Cullip on one occasion.

Not even the pros do that. Albion will hope that, like Worthing, they cannot stop Knight either.

Rebels boss Alan Pook said: "I was very disappointed with the first goal because we had spoken about playing tighter before the game but Leon did what he does well.

"He got on the last man, got away and it was a quality finish.

"I think Brighton have got some cracking young players.

"I really hope they do well. It's great for them, great for the town, great for the area.

"I'm sure that if Mark can sign the two or three players he wants they can do okay.

"As for us, I was very pleased."