Albion - A year of progress

Today marks the anniversary of Adams' first match in charge of the Seagulls. They beat Shrewsbury 1-0 in front of 2,207 fans at Gillingham to stay 15th in the table.

On Saturday 12th-placed Albion welcome leaders Rotherham to Withdean, with another sell-out 6,000 crowd hoping for a win to keep their play-off hopes alive.

In the intervening year Adams has rebuilt the squad. His team have been as high as top after their flying start, as low as 18th at the end of February.

Publicly he stated the Seagulls would finish above last season's 17th position. Privately, bearing in mind all the changes, he anticipated ending in the top ten.

"It has been an interesting year and a hard year that's for sure, but a year of progress," Adams said.

"I have enjoyed the fact that generally I have a good, hard-working team who look as though they are going to win games rather than lose them.

"We have drawn too many, which is possibly what is going to cost us. But once you have got a squad of players you trust and believe in and who don't look like being turned over in games that gives a manager great satisfaction.

"The fans enjoy that as well, particularly when they are going away and spending vast amounts of cash.

"We are not the finished article. We still need to improve in certain areas. There have been a few ifs and buts, but it has been a pleasing season for everybody and it's not over yet."

Adams has been taken aback by the scale of interest in the club shown by fans and the local media, and the feverish expectation which accompanies it.

This was brought home to him in the space of 11 days before Christmas when Albion lost an FA Cup replay against Plymouth at Withdean, then suffered a crazy 4-3 home defeat by Rochdale.

The Rochdale reverse left the Seagulls six points outside the play-offs, just as they are now, but that did not stop a minority of supporters calling for Adams' head.

"You are very lucky as a manager if you please everybody all the time," he said. "If they were frustrated think how I was feeling?

"I know there were rumours around that time that I was going to quit, but it never came to that.

"I was also disappointed that we lost to Plymouth in the FA Cup, because if we had got to the third round people would have thought that was real progress.

"The staff did well to keep me going after the Rochdale game, which is unlike me. I am single-minded and I don't really care what other people think or say.

"I listen to them while being very blinkered in my thoughts and the way I want to do things, but I had never been in that situation before as a manager at any other club.

"I had been lucky really, because I experienced great times in almost two years at Fulham. I put my brief stay at Swansea down to experience and even at Brentford I was pleased with what I had done.

"They were bottom of the League with no money when I took over and we only went down on the last day of the season."

Following a Christmas revival Albion seemed poised for a promotion push until a wretched run, which coincided with personal distractions for Adams. He missed the match at Torquay to be at the bedside of his seriously ill father up in Sheffield.

The next few weeks were difficult. He has never tried to use his dad's plight as an excuse for a series of poor results during that time, but Adams could be forgiven for his mind being elsewhere.

A nine-match unbeaten run since then has lifted spirits and he can see similarities with the promotion-winning squad he assembled at Fulham.

"We are not too far away from where I was there. Maybe that's because I have got a few of those boys here anyway, but I can see a lot of similarities in terms of team spirit and togetherness.

"If I compare the sides we are just lacking in certain areas. We had an out and out goalscorer there in Mike Conroy, but defensively we are very similar.

"I had a better squad at Fulham in that if we had people missing in certain areas I had others who could come in and perform straight away.

"One of the most pleasing things this season is the way the kids have come through. The difference is we were not relying on them to make the squad up at Fulham, as we have been here."

Adams kicks off his second year at the helm satisfied with what has been achieved so far and optimistic of repeating his success at Craven Cottage.

"I know progress has been made, because we have more points than we've had for a long time, we have scored more goals, we have conceded less goals, we have lost fewer games and we are back in Brighton.

"We had four games in the FA Cup, which is three more than usual, we beat Millwall in the Auto Windscreens Shield after they had thrashed us the season before and we lost in extra time to Bournemouth, another Second Division club.

"The reserves are in the Sussex Senior Cup final and the kids are flying, so if people cannot see that's a year of progress they are wearing blindfolds!

"We are not resting on our laurels, because it is still not good enough, but there is never a quick fix in football. If you look at the teams at the top now, Darlington, Rotherham and Swansea have all been banging away for a few seasons with basically the same group of players.

"Cheltenham have stuck with the squad which won the Conference, so considering our turnaround in personnel we have done okay. By keeping most of the squad together and making a few additions then hopefully we won't be too far away."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.