Plymouth 0 Albion 2 THEY have travelled thousands of miles and spent thousands of pounds.

At Home Park on Saturday their devotion was richly rewarded as they witnessed Albion's ninth away win and with it their ninth promotion.

The Seagulls' form at Withdean has been formidable, but chairman Dick Knight recognised the poignancy of the dream coming true in deepest Devon.

A Sports Argus survey recently revealed that Albion have been better supported away this season than Micky Adams' old club Southampton in the Premiership.

That is the clearest measure imaginable of the huge potential of the club.

Albion had 1,300 fans at Plymouth, but more than 500 tickets were unsold.

That is because it wasn't really meant to happen like this. Most people expected them to go up today at Withdean against Darlington.

After all, there was the small matter of beating a team with the best home record outside the top three.

Then Hartlepool would have to lose at home and Rochdale fail to win at Macclesfield, an improbable hat-trick.

It couldn't possibly happen, could it?

Surprisingly perhaps, the easiest part was Albion's victory. That was never in doubt once Paul Brooker and Bobby Zamora scored in the opening 16 minutes.

It took Brooker only three minutes to strike after a passage of play which he both started and finished.

A penetrating interchange with Kerry Mayo down the left resulted in a Paul Watson corner.

It was headed clear as far as Steve Melton, who nodded the ball back into the danger area.

The lanky Romain Larrieu, Plymouth's haphazard French keeper, made a mess of his punch and Brooker fired his fourth of the campaign into the roof of the net from 20 yards.

The match was effectively over as a contest a mere 13 minutes later.

Gary Hart's shot was partially blocked into the path of Bobby Zamora.

He comfortably held off a rather timid challenge to turn and slot his 27th of the season and third in as many matches against Argyle from eight yards.

Events were almost surreal from that moment on, as Albion's game became incidental to the wider picture.

The quality of their passing on a patchy pitch was in keeping with a team supremely confident in their destiny.

Plymouth huffed and puffed but never looked like blowing a house down in which Danny Cullip was again a dependable doorman and Michel Kuipers relaxed almost untroubled on the sofa.

Long before the end attention had turned to the North-East and Cheshire.

Once news filtered through that Hartlepool had fallen behind against Hull the improbable became plausible.

With Albion in the comfort zone, Micky Adams made a trio of substitutions.

The last of them fittingly saw the introduction of 36-year-old skipper Paul Rogers, rested with today's match in mind.

Charlie Oatway proved an able deputy as captain, but Rogers deserved to be on the pitch at the finish for his efforts this season.

Even when ref Frazer Stretton blew the final whistle the players could not be absolutely sure.

Albion employed kit man Matt Hicks as a runner to keep them informed about what was happening elswehere.

Nationwide, the League sponsors, were well prepared. Adams' appearance on the pitch, clutching their banner proclaiming "We Are Going Up", confirmed the party could begin.

"There was a lot of talk before the game about promotion, but we had to win," Adams said.

"It's a great achievement with six games to go. Plymouth is not the easiest place to play, because they are a good side, but we were in the mood to beat anybody.

"The early goal settled us down and we were in total control of the game in the first half.

"We expected them to come at us in the second half, which they did, but we weathered that storm as well with some great defending."

How ironic that Albion should clinch promotion on the same day as Fulham, the club Adams took up from the Third Division in 1996-97 before he was so controversially ditched.

"From a personal point of view this compares favourably," he revealed. "I've had a few jobs in-between and I've not really been given the backing I thought I deserved.

"When you get the sack you start to doubt yourself. I don't think I have to now, because my cv looks okay."