Micky Adams can lead Albion to back-to-back promotions.

That is the opinion of Chris Cattlin, who guided Seagulls to sixth in the old Division Two in 1985, and was one win away from promotion.

Cattlin, who still lives and works in Brighton, said: "Micky has got a great opportunity to make a name for himself and take Brighton right through. There's no doubt they will get promoted this season, although their concentration and professionalism to grind out results has got to be right.

"With a little tinkering here and there, I see no reason why they won't get promoted again next season. The difference is marginal between their current division and the one above, which probably has a little bit more organisation.

"When they get to the top six in the First Division they will be where I left the club 15 years ago."

Cattlin was in good form, cracking jokes and talking passionately about the club he still loves.

He said: "Micky has turned around a side that was struggling not so long ago with astute signings. With a better standard of player, you obviously get a better standard of result and that breeds confidence and a good team spirit on the field and within the club in general.

"He has got good knowledge of the lower leagues and I think Ron Noades at Brentford made mistakes by selling his players to Brighton's advantage (Danny Cullip, Darren Freeman, Charlie Oatway and Paul Watson).

"Bobby Zamora has done very well. He's got 16 goals already and I can imagine him getting 30 by the end of the season. Micky has also been able to buy players like Lee Steele if Zamora gets injured.

"I heard the Plymouth chairman say they desperately wanted to sign Steele from Shrewsbury but couldn't live with what Brighton offered him. The players Micky has got are a lot better than what the Shrewsburys, Rochdales and Exeters have. Brighton are the most powerful club in the Third and should be in the Second. It's great to see them doing well, but it doesn't surprise me."

Cattlin likes the Adams way.

He said: "Football management is like running a greengrocers or any business. It's just about handling people and learning. There's no style, it's all impulse. You make decisions as you see the situation.

"Micky is a blunt Yorkshireman, football's Boycott, but he got Fulham up and he will take Brighton, who are possibly a bigger club, up. There's no reason why he shouldn't be highly thought of and it grieves me, as a Lancashire lad, to say that!"

Cattlin has never returned to the club after an acrimonious departure in 1986, that resulted in an out of court settlement in his favour.

He looks for their results first and watches televised highlights.

Cattlin is confident the Seagulls can eventually make it back to the Premiership. He knows what it takes. Cattlin served Coventry as a player in football's elite for ten years. As a manager at the Goldstone he dealt with the best, players like Dean Saunders, Jimmy Case and Steve Foster, with John Robinson, now at Charlton, coming through.

"I played with Coventry for a long time. Brighton are arguably as big and if it's done right they could do what they have done. But you've got to have ambition.

"Chairman Dick Knight has been a fan over the years but he has got to open his mind to help the club when they get in Division One to add more strength at boardroom level. If you do something you do it to win. The big challenge is to get in the Premier.

"I think the current directors will have to make funds available to the manager to push on and if that means getting other people in, then so be it.

"But you have to have the proper people who have the club at heart, someone like my chairman Mike Bamber who was a phenomenal and always backed his managers."