[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Our last match in October takes us down to the south coast for the second instalment of the Monday night trilogy, with Brighton & Hove Albion this week's sparring partners. Sparring was very much the feel against Burnley, with neither side able to land a knockout blow, and at this point it pretty much goes without saying that the wins aren't going to come for us without some kind of improvement in attack. A solid debut for Ivanovic at least gives us something to build on at the back, so we're not completely without hope as we travel to the Amex.

But it hasn't been a happy destination for a long, long time. Our last visit, in the FA Cup two seasons ago, was goalless; about as good as it gets for Albion in Brighton. The year before, our long slide towards relegation from the Premier League began with a 3-1 defeat there. 3-1 was also the scoreline when we lost under Ossie in 1993, and two years earlier they dispatched us 2-0 en route to the Twerton Park relegation. You have to go back over thirty years, to 14th April 1990, to find the last Baggies triumph at the Goldstone Ground, with Albion 3-0 winners. A repeat of that result on Monday would require, amongst many other unlikelihoods, Neal Maupay being kept under wraps as the opposition's most potent and consistent goal-threat. Still, there's good news in that the Seagulls - whose only win so far was a three-goal victory at Newcastle - will be without skipper Lewis Dunk in defence after his red card against Crystal Palace last weekend. Improvement is the watchword, and at the very least, it'd be nice to see us look like we're heading in the right direction.

Famous fans: A short but respectable list includes Des Lynam, Norman "Fatboy Slim" Cook (who has a 12% share in the club) and Jamie Theakston among those who nailed their colours firmly to the mast of the wrong Albion. A few others through the years have supported Brighton as a second club while sunning themselves in Sussex by the sea, not least Sir Laurence Olivier and Roger Daltrey, which must have made for an interesting half-time show if nothing else. Singer Johnny Wakelin - famous for the Rumble In The Jungle anthem "In Zaire" - also penned the club's cup final song in 1983, which I'm sure is a lovely ditty if you can bring yourself to listen to something as disastrously titled as "Where Seagulls Fly".