Sheffield United v Brighton: Bed and breakfast in Hove, boozy train rides home and the Withdean - Chris Wilder on his special Brighton memories

And then comes the most demeaning suggestion of all; they are not ‘football towns’.

From personal experience, Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder can certainly vouch for the fact that the former in Brighton most definitely is.

In with a strong chance of finishing in the top six of the Premier League for the second successive campaign, safely ensconced in the last 16 of the Europa League and also well placed to have a bit of fun and attack the FA Cup as well, Brighton are a huge modern-day footballing success story.

Naturally, Wilder will be doing his level best to ensure the visitors’ hopes on one particular front end today.

But his respect for the Brighton story is fulsome and personal.

Wilder spent six months at 'Sussex-by-the-Sea' in the late noughties. He was at that dangerous age for a journeyman footballer approaching his thirtieth birthday, but his south coast adventure at Brighton - when they were led by a ‘Blade’ in Micky Adams - is one that he will always treasure.

Wilder recalled: “It was brilliant, I had the time of my life!

“I used to train up in Sheffield on a Monday and Tuesday, head down to my old pal Bob Booker’s house on a Wednesday night and travel down to Brighton on a Thursday morning. I’d then train Thursday and Friday, play Saturday.

"I stayed in a bed and breakfast at Hove and travelled back to Sheffield after a game with my eight cans of 'Stella'.

"I’d get a lift to the little train station outside the Withdean, with a little off licence right next to it and then the next minute I’m in Sheffield station. I don’t know how I got there!

"I’d get the train up to Victoria, the tube across, train to St Pancras and then back home and meeting up at 8 o’clock in 'Henry’s'.

"It was the perfect club for me, but when it was cold and wet, those journeys seemed to be a bit longer and the mighty Halifax Town came in for me."

Being part of Albion’s return home to Brighton in 1999 after the club had played in Kent at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium for the previous two seasons following the controversial sale of the Goldstone Ground and experiencing the emotional fervour which surrounded the homecoming stirred Wilder’s soul.

It explains why he would never begrudge Albion having their place in the sun and especially for those stoic fans who made the 140-mile, three-hour round-trip to Gillingham for 'home' matches for two years and suffered the indignities of the Bill Archer/David Bellotti era when the Goldstone was sold off in 1997.

Wilder continued: “It comes across a little old Sussex-by-the-Sea and it’s a beautiful part of the world but they love their football, they really do.

"They were away from home, but took a really healthy following and are passionate supporters.

"They now have a new home stadium and training ground, but we were at the Withdean, an old athletics stadium with temporary stands.

"We trained at the university and didn’t do a lot of training, we just did a lot of running I can remember.

"It has to start somewhere and it did – there are a lot of people in the background who can take an awful lot of credit for getting them back into Brighton.

"On the back of that, they’ve had an incredible journey. It won’t stop and it’s only going to go one way.”

After securing a lease to play at the Withdean in 1999-2000, Albion’s wounds started to truly heal with the Dick Knight era providing wholesome memories.

His successor as chairman in Tony Bloom, who secured £93m funding for their new stadium in Falmer, took on the baton in the late noughties and Brighton have never looked back.

A club who are going places and are the envy of many. One that many big-city clubs like United would love to emulate.

Wilder continued: "It was 1999/2000 – 25 years ago – when I was there and seems a long time ago, but it really isn’t.

"There will be a lot of Brighton fans who remember those Withdean days and the players who were there.

"There was the old chairman Dick Knight and I wasn’t there when Tony Bloom came into the club.

"They’re just a smart football club, from their recruitment to what they’ve done to make them the club that they are.

"They got themselves into the Premier League and stayed there, which is always the hardest thing."