Gary Hart wants to join Albion’s elite 400 club – with Russell Slade as his manager.

Hart makes his 350th League appearance for the Seagulls in tomorrow’s crucial clash against Oldham at Withdean.

That puts him inside the top ten on the all-time list and the long-serving striker, one of 16 pros out of contract in the summer, would like to think he can build on that landmark next season, with Slade still in charge.

Hart said: “I don’t know how many appearances I’ve made overall but I am looking to get to the 400 mark. Hopefully I will be here to do that.

“There’s no talk of contracts at all. Obviously we have got to try to make ourselves safe first. Hopefully we will be in League One.

“No one wants to go down. I’ve had relegation before and it’s not nice. A lot of the lads might not have had it in their careers but I wouldn’t want to go through that again.”

Hart made a workaholic 385th appearance in total in Monday’s 1-0 win at Colchester, which revived Albion’s chances of beating the drop.

It was his first start since September after knee surgery and Slade described him afterwards as a “diamond”.

Hart has equal admiration for Slade, his ninth different manager in 11 seasons with the Seagulls.

“Since he has come in he’s been brilliant,” Hart said. “His man-management is unbelievable. He comes round and talks to the lads, he is in the medical room sometimes and he doesn’t leave anyone out.

“That makes the team and every single player feel really good about themselves. It’s a feelgood factor – when you feel good you play good.

“I haven’t had many managers like that in my career. I haven’t really spoken to a lot of them.

“He has come in to the hardest job in the world to try to keep us up. He has got the group of players he was left with and has had to try to turn it around quickly.

“We are getting there. You can see performances getting better. We drop off a little bit sometimes and that’s when we are conceding goals but I would love to see him here next year.”

Hart’s return to the team already represents a remarkable turnaround for the 32-year-old, who is just four short of a half-century of goals for the club.

Released by Dean Wilkins last summer, he was re-instated by Micky Adams and played in four games at the start of the campaign before the knee op which sidelined him from first team action for more than six months.

Hart said: “Micky brought me back and gave me another chance really, because he knew what I was all about.

“He said to me ‘I know I can get out of you what I used to get out of you’ but obviously I had to have my operation first and, when I came back, Micky wasn’t here.

“I still appreciate what he’s done for me. He told me to have the operation done or I might not play again.

“I was struggling after games and I couldn’t move for a couple of days. It wasn’t right, it kept on giving way. Enough was enough, I couldn’t go on like that.

“I expected to be out for the rest of the season. I was looking to try to get myself a new club for next year or stay here – I didn’t know what the situation was. Now the knee feels great and I have got myself back early and back involved, which is good.”

Hart caught Slade’s eye with his goals and performances in the reserves. He came off the bench to set up Lloyd Owusu’s clincher at Hereford and Gary Dicker’s late consolation against Swindon last Saturday before partnering Owusu at Colchester.

“The team has realised we are not going to play our way out of trouble, we have just got to battle and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Hart said.

“On Monday me and Lloyd just worked as hard as we could, put our hand up after 70 minutes and said we are tired, then we had two fresh pairs of legs (Craig Davies and Calvin Andrew) and they worked hard as well. That is what it’s all about at the moment.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries this year and with Fozzy (Nicky Forster) and Muzza (Glenn Murray) taken away from us that’s a lot of goals but we are getting together and doing our best.

“If I had my team it would just be a battling team. I think that is the way to get out of this League.”