Mark McGhee walked along the gangway behind the North Stand at Withdean towards his last press conference of another nerve-shredding campaign for Albion.

Fans celebrating Championship survival on the terrace of the Sportsman pub spontaneously applauded as he went by and one remarked "good effort".

McGhee thanked them before remarking to the assembled media: "That must be the under-statement of the season."

Indeed it must. Good effort doesn't half cover it. Never has there been such glorious success in finishing fourth-bottom.

How fitting it was also that at the end of 100 exhausting minutes (including seven minutes stoppage time in the first half and three in the second) Albion had shaped their own destiny without relying on a favour from their former manager Micky Adams at Gresty Road or from the City Ground in Nottingham.

They earned the result they required with a mixture of character, commitment, meticulous planning, heroic defending and, yes, for a change bits and pieces of luck.

Devastated Gillingham can have no axe to grind with Ipswich. They threw everything at Albion in a remarkable second half, including the kitchen sink, even though Wigan's comfortable lead over Reading was condemning them to the play-offs rather than automatic promotion.

The visitors had four up front for the last 15 minutes after Joe Royle introduced Pablo Counago and Jamie Scowcroft. Somehow the Seagulls survived, while squandering chances themselves on the counter-attack to relieve the almost unbearable tension.

The Championship may lack the glamour, quality and money of the Premiership but this was English football at its old-fashioned best, brimming with blood, sweat and ultimately tears of joy for Albion.

That aforementioned character and commitment was epitomised by the contribution of the player responsible for both goals, Adam Virgo.

Virgo rated himself only 40 per cent fit ten days ago, when he was ruled out of the victory at Rotherham by the cartilage damage he sustained in last month's home draw against Leicester.

He was expected to have surgery last week but, after medical advice confirmed he could not make the injury any worse, Virgo played with the aid of a painkilling injection.

It threatened to backfire horribly on him and McGhee when, within minutes of being presented with the player of the season award and only four minutes into the match, Virgo gifted Ipswich the lead with an uncharacteristic mistake.

He failed to cut out Jim Magilton's pass and Shefki Kuqi, scorer of the only goal when the sides met at Portman Road in November, galloped clear to rifle his 19th goal of the season.

Was it a terrible mistake to play Virgo, we wondered? Was he simply not fit enough to do himself justice?

The answer was delivered six minutes later. Richard Carpenter's free-kick was met towards the near post by Gary Hart with a glancing header which forced Kelvin Davis into a fine reaction save.

There lurking at the far post to pick up the pieces was Virgo with a sweeping half-volley from close range. It was his ninth goal of the season and first with his left foot.

The meticulous planning referred to earlier was the work of McGhee and his coaching staff. The play-anywhere Virgo was employed, as he had been just once before at Tottenham in the FA Cup, as the left-sided of three centre halves.

McGhee, familiar with Darren Currie's destructive capabilities in possession, wanted Adam El-Abd on the right side of the defence to look after Albion's former playmaker with Paul Reid.

This freed Virgo to help repel, together with the again outstanding Guy Butters, Ipswich's main tactic, diagonal long balls from on-loan Portsmouth leftback David Unsworth to exploit the aerial prowess of Kuqi and his 20-goal partner Darren Bent.

McGhee has rarely been outsmarted by his opposite numbers this season.

Ipswich may have a reputation for the cultural, especially with Jim Magilton masterminding their midfield, but there is also an element of the agricultural about the Tractor Boys.

The heroic defending? That was evident in abundance in the second half particularly. I lost count of the number of times an Albion player got some part of their anatomy in the path of the ball.

And the luck? Ipswich should have been awarded a penalty, instead of a corner, in the first half when El-Abd lunged into Bent. Hearts were in mouths after the break as well when Dan Harding barged into his England under-21 colleague Bent inside the box.

Albion, mind you, might also have been awarded a penalty in a first half in which Leon Knight sparkled, Richard Naylor appearing to handle a cross from Dean Hammond.

A remarkable match was encapsulated midway through the second half when Virgo, intercepting on the edge of his own area to deny Kuqi from a corner, powered forward.

Spotting Davis off his line, he attempted an audacious shot from long range which the scrambling Ipswich keeper dived to stop. It would have been one of the most outrageous goals of the season.

The most valuable goal of Albion's season, as it turned out, was Virgo's late winner against Gillingham at Withdean on Boxing Day.

They fought for their lives that day and continued to do so until the final bell to stay where they deserve to be.