The song ringing out from the away end at Cardiff was a familiar one – apart from two words.

“He’s one of our own, he’s one of our own.

“Haydon Roberts, he’s one of our own.”

Very appropriate. Because, as a Brighton-born centre-back, the former Hove Park School student is following in the footsteps of Lewis Dunk.

His ambition, as stated after a goalscoring Carabao Cup debut two years ago, is actually to stand side by side with Dunk – at the back for Albion.

He would later, the plan goes, take over the armband.

That seems more feasible than it did in 2019 now Dunk has spoken about ending his career as a one-club man.

In Tuesday's 2-0 win at Cardiff, Roberts stood firm alongside an equally impressive colleague who has a more international background – Antef Tsoungui.

Not just that, both are also confident in possession, which is a must if you are to thrive in a Graham Potter team.

Jason Steele had the best view in the house and the experienced Albion goalkeeper liked what he saw.

He said: “Absolutely incredible. I have played with the pair of them before, so I did not have one concern going into the game.

“I have played with them in the Checkatrade Trophy, which is a similar style, and I knew they would be fine.

“There were incredible in front of me.

“I am so proud of them to come here and play against two international strikers in James Collins and Keifer Moore they dealt with it so well, and they looked really assured to me.”

One of the highlights of the first half started with Steele showing some good footwork to evade an incoming striker.

Roberts than carried the ball a good 30 yards or so before seeing the run made by Andi Zeqiri and sliding a pass carefully into his path.

Zeqiri hooked his shot cross the face of goal – but was to score later on.

Steele said: “I think it shows the structure we have in terms of how the manager wants us to play is so clear that the lads who come in know their jobs and what they have to do.

“They were so brave in how they played, and there were times when it was impossible to build from the back and find the spare man, but they showed so much character to deal with it.

“We fought like dogs and, in fairness, we made some great chances and on another night we could have scored more.”

It is understood Roberts embraced his father, who was in the away end, after the game.

The way Graham Potter celebrated the win underlined how much the efforts of his young side meant to him.

Roberts is relatively experienced for a 19-year-old.

He was part of a tough League One season at Rochdale last term, making 24 starts.

With Steven Alzate, he was one of only two players in Tuesday’s team to have scored a senior goal for the Seagulls ahead of the game.

Roberts said after that tie in 2019: “I think if you asked the coaches, they would say I’m very composed.

“That is something that stands about me and I’m glad it looked like that.

“It was just another game but, when you have a big crowd, you have that thought ‘keep it safe, keep it safe’.

“When the first ten minutes go, you start to express yourself and all the nerves go.”

There were no obvious nerves at Cardiff for a man who played away to some of the bigger League One clubs last term in Wigan, Charlton and Portsmouth – albeit with no home fans present, of course.

Taylor Richards also started in that tie versus Villa, when nearly 15,000 were present and Jack Grealish went on to end any Villa jitters after Roberts’ goal.

Of the other starters or subs who went on, Alex Cochrane, Teddy Jenks and Ryan Longman are all out on loan now.

Romeric Yapi, Archie Davies and Peter Gwargis have left the club and the future of Tudor Baluta is perhaps in some doubt.

Tsoungui, who can also play as a full-back, has emerged since then.

He is an adopted man of Sussex, brought up in Crawley from the age of five having arrived from Belgium with his father, who is from Cameroon, and mother, from Italy.

His footballing talents earned him schoolboy terms at Chelsea – and, he revealed recently, made him the envy of some of his contemporaries.

He spoke eloquently about racism in an Albion In The Community event to educate schoolchildren earlier this year, telling told how he was called Kunte Kinte at school by fellow pupils, who pretended to whip him with their headphones.

He added: “There’s a lot of jealousy in secondary school.

“Especially in my instance, where you’re talked about a lot for playing football or you are missing days because of day release or you’re good at PE. People are jealous of you.

“When they have nothing else against you, they see you have done nothing to them, they start to pick out small things.

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“Racism falls into that category of ‘I’ve got nothing else against you but I don’t like you, I’m jealous of you’.”

It was Tsoungui’s well-timed tackle which won possession for Enock Mwepu to send Jakub Moder through for the first goal at Cardiff.

He and Roberts are no doubt aware they are following in the footsteps of a host of central defenders who have come off the Albion production line.

Right back to Tommy Elphick, Joel Lynch, Adam Hinshelwood, Adam El-Abd, through Dunk and Steve Cook and on to Ben White.

You could add to that Grant Hall and Glenn Rea, who did not go on to Premier League fame but have been regulars at Championship level.

That is it for Carabao Cup ties this month – unlike last season, when there were two such opportunities before the window closed.

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We wait to see what happens before transfer deadline, although Jan Paul van Hecke looks the centre-back most likely to go out on loan this month.

But Albion fans have a couple more hot prospects to keep an eye on.