From Mullery's marvels to Hughton's heroes.

Thirty-eight years apart but so many connections.

In 1979, Albion had a promotion parade to celebrate reaching the top flight of English football.

Alan Mullery, steeped in Spurs, was the manager who guided them up as runners-up with an experienced, bearded captain in Brian Horton marshalling his team.

Yesterday, from the pier to Hove Lawns, fans lined the seafront to honour the class of 2017 as they head for the Premier League.

Led by a manager, steeped in Spurs, in Chris Hughton who has taken them there in second place (okay, it should have been first) with Bruno as his skipper.

Horton bridges the generation gap. He went on to manage the Seagulls in the bleakest of eras, groundsharing at Gillingham in the basement division.

He knows what it means, to the players, to the supporters, to the Bloom family, after playing for the club when owner Tony's late grandfather Harry was vice-chairman.

The Argus: And what it will take, from his stint as assistant manager at Hull, for Hughton's side to emulate Mullery's (above) by not just going up but staying up.

The season ended in personal disappointment for Horton in his role as football co-ordinator for another seaside club, Southend United.

They missed out on the League One play-offs by one place and one point but he could not be happier that Albion, 12 months on, have made amends for final day automatic promotion heartache and the empty feeling of losing in the play-offs three times in four years.

Horton said: "I rang Darren Bloom (Tony's brother) to say well done. We speak now and again. To go so close last year, people probably thought this was never going to happen again.

"Chris has done a great job and they've got some good players, some players that can change games. Murray, Knockaert, people like that. It makes such a difference.

"I'm made up for them and I'm made up for the fans, what they went through in all those years with the Goldstone going, Gillingham, Withdean, everything. They're fantastic fans.

"And what the Bloom family has done for the football club is mindblowing really."

Hughton deserved their moment in the sun yesterday. The excitement will persist, through to June 14 when the fixtures come out and early July when the squad go on a pre-season trip abroad.

After the dream comes the reality of trying to stay in the hardest league in the world.

Albion managed to do it first time around for four seasons in total, two of them with Horton (below) still leading them, despite an immediate wake-up call and four defeats in their first five games.

The Argus: Horton admits it was easier back then. "We won the last four games to stay up in my last year and then I left for Luton and they went to the (FA) Cup final and went down," he said.

"I think it's probably a bit harder now, because the lesser clubs have improved. There are no easy games for the big boys any more.

"Arsenal beat us 4-0 in our first game after promotion (at the Goldstone). We thought 'welcome to the big league'.

"Now I think it's a higher level right the way down. Look at Palace beating Arsenal 3-0.

"There are no games where you think 'Oh we might get a result there'. That's what we found at Hull, we found it hard, especially when they find out about you.

"We beat Tottenham and Arsenal back to back in our first few weeks and then all of a sudden people think 'These aren't bad' so they don't go into the games thinking it's going to be easy against the likes of Brighton. So I think it's tougher now, definitely."

Tougher but not an impossible mission. Horton was No.2 at Hull to Phil Brown (below), who he is working with again now at Southend.

The Argus: They had the disadvantage of less time to prepare following promotion via the play-offs but carried through the momentum to begin with.

They eventually stayed up narrowly before succumbing the following year.

"We started off really well," Hughton said. "I think we were top of the league after four, five or six games. It was unbelievable.

"But then it's hard to sustain week in and week out. I know the Championship is tough but you are going into better, better quality.

"To go to places like Old Trafford and score a goal - it's totally different. The Etihad, Arsenal, Wembley to play Spurs, it's just a different league again.

"Players have got to embrace it. I've read that Tony is not going to go berserk with transfers. They are going to do it calmly and that's the right way.

"It looks like they've got a fantastic spirit amongst them in the team and that could carry them a long way.

"That's what we had. Alan Mullery did buy some players but the spirit kept us in there. It was tough but we did it."

Will there be a different type of celebration a year from now, one that marks not finishing second but avoiding first second or third-bottom? It's fun having the chance to find out.