Leon Knight and Sam Parkin were regular strike partners at Chelsea, but there will not be much friendly banter between them at Withdean on Saturday.

The rivalry goes deeper than just being on opposite sides, with Knight leading the Albion attack and Parkin spearheading Swindon's.

The Seagulls' top scorer has revealed ahead of their shoot-out that the pair were not exactly bosom buddies when they were at Stamford Bridge.

"We haven't kept in touch because we didn't really get on," Knight said.

"On the pitch you have to do what you have to do, but off the pitch you could say it was a clash of personalities.

"Things he was interested in I wasn't and vice versa, so we never really spoke off the pitch."

Such antipathy between forward colleagues is nothing new. Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole, team-mates for Manchester United and England, never spoke to each other off the pitch either.

It does not stop Knight having a healthy respect for the Parkin problems Albion will face in their early season drive for promotion.

"I played alongside him for about four or five years in the youth team and reserves at Chelsea," Knight said. "It was an effective partnership, little and large.

"He's a very good player, tall but very good on the floor as well. He's not the quickest, but he's got decent pace and he is strong in the air."

The careers of Knight and Parkin have followed similar paths. Neither of them made a League appearance for Chelsea and were frequently loaned out.

Knight had temporary spells with QPR, Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday and, of course, Albion before making his move to Withdean permanent.

Parkin was borrowed by Millwall, Wycombe, Oldham and Northampton, then joined Swindon a year ago.

Knight will settle for a repeat of their last meeting. "When he was at Northampton I played against him for Huddersfield and we beat them 2-0.

"I haven't played against him since then, so I'm looking forward to it.

"Hopefully I can get another goal as well. I'm always confident that I'm going to score.

"I'll just concentrate on my game, he'll concentrate on his and at the end of the season we will see who scores the most goals."

The bookmakers favour Knight. He is 8-1 third favourite to finish top scorer in the Second Division, with Parkin a generous looking 28-1.

Albion chief Steve Coppell and his Swindon counterpart Andy King were also colleagues not so long ago. Their rivalry on Saturday will be much more friendly.

Coppell helped King out last season in-between leaving Brentford and being appointed by the Seagulls.

"I got a phone call from Andy around about this time last year," he said.

"They'd had a really bad start, the crowd were getting on his back and finances were unbelievably tight.

"I was doing nothing, just watching games, and he asked if I wanted to go down and do a little bit of work with the team.

"I was only going to do a month there, because it was a four-hour round trip.

"The third Saturday of the month was the weekend Brighton played Watford and I got the phone call from my agent.

"I've got great admiration for Andy, because Swindon work on a shoestring. His squad is very small, but he works ever so hard travelling up and down the country looking for players.

"The crowd were wanting him out last season and he turned it around. They had a great run and at one stage looked in a good position to make the play-offs.

"I've got unbelievable respect for what he does. I think his own supporters take him for granted. The work he puts in is phenomenal.

"They are a good team, with players with hundreds and hundreds of games between them.

"His best 11 is a match for anyone in this division, no doubt about it. They won't be far away."