Albion captain Guy Butters is confident Alan Blayney will not be a passenger in goal, even though he cannot drive.

The Northern Irishman may be no use behind the wheel of a car but Butters believes he removed his goalkeeping L-plates by helping the Seagulls to survival last season.

Blayney, 24, steps back into the spotlight at Stoke today following the end of Wayne Henderson's loan spell from Aston Villa.

Butters has no doubts about the Southampton loan signing's ability to carry on where Henderson left off.

The stand-in skipper for the injured Richard Carpenter and Charlie Oatway said: "Alan is a good keeper. We know what he can do from last year.

"He hasn't played for a while, so he is going to be a bit rusty. It's little things like the talking and getting positioning right but I am sure that will come back pretty quickly."

Butters is hoping Albion can follow the example set by Blayney's parent club after Tuesday's third 1-1 draw in succession at home to Wolves.

"It happened at Southampton, everyone was going on about how they kept drawing," said the veteran centre half.

"Just lately they have been turning them into wins and put themselves in a better position in the table. We could have had another four points against Ipswich and Wolves and that would have moved us right up."