Albion rediscovered the winning touch at Arundel last night.

The Seagulls kicked off their series of pre-season friendlies with a comprehensive victory, which may have only been against a County League side but still felt good.

First half goals from Shaun Wilkinson and John Piercy put Albion in control before two from Chris McPhee and one from Gary Hart settled matters.

Arundel and their handful of supporters did themselves proud and were rewarded with a consolation goal by Jason Wimbleton just after half time.

Albion assistant manager Bob Booker was pleased to get back to winning ways after the disappointment of relegation just two months ago.

He said: "It was nice to get a bit of football under our belts. We have been training for a couple of weeks now, but it is nice to get back in a match situation and of course to win as well.

"This was just the start of the build-up to the season which starts on the first day at Oldham, but we were pleased to have got through our first competitive game.

"A lot of credit has also got to go to Arundel who did a great job in putting the match on and hopefully they would have made a few quid out of it. We thank them very much."

There was no sign of the disappointment of relegation last season from the 1,000-odd Albion fans who had travelled a little further for the pre-season friendly curtain-raiser.

The traditional game against Worthing was called off due to maintenance work on the Woodside Road pitch, so Albion hastily rearranged the game to picturesque Arundel to give the County Leaguers a pre-season payday.

It made no difference to the Seagulls' army who were just pleased to see Albion in action again. It was also a chance to run the rule over trialist Carl Wilson-Denis as well as check none of the regulars from last season had lost their touch over the summer.

Striker Wilson-Denis, who had scored six goals in nine games for Mullingar in the Republic of Ireland Under-21s League last season, had been told by Coppell he had until the end of the week to make an impact.

He was looking to prove he was good enough to partner top-scorer Bobby Zamora, who was watching from the sidelines after only returning to pre-season training on Tuesday.

The other trialist, goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan, had to wait for his chance to impress as he was not included in the starting line-up. That gave Michel Kuipers the chance to make a welcome come-back after missing most of last season through injury.

It was Kuipers who was the first keeper called into action, pushing an audacious 25-yard lob from Miles Scerri over the bar after two minutes.

It was only a brief flurry by Arundel, however, as the professionals began to knock the ball around like a training ground exercise.

Want-away striker David Lee had seen a volley deflected over by home keeper Andy McCarthy before Albion took the lead on eight minutes.

Wilkinson, playing wide on the left, saw his own cross come back to his feet before dropping a shoulder and bending a right foot curling shot into the top corner.

Hard-working Arundel, who are managed by former Latvian Under-19 coach Steve Johnson almost got back on level terms on 16 minutes when trialist Mazine Ahmed caused Kuipers problems with a bobbling shot.

Albion regained control and Wilson-Denis came within a width of the crossbar of boosting his chances of being offered a contract midway through the first half with a thumping header from a cross from Piercy.

The former Kingstonian frontman then smacked a shot from the edge of the box against the right hand post to cap an industrious but frustrating half for the hopeful striker.

Piercy doubled the lead seven minutes before the break with a superb solo goal which left four defenders in his wake before a neat finish past McCarthy.

Kuipers was the only player to survive wholesale changes by Coppell at half-time and the Albion keeper found himself kicking the ball out of his own net almost immediately after the restart as Arundel pulled one back.

Scerri swung in a corner which Kuipers came out to punch, but missed and the ball hit Wimbleton on the back and looped in.

Albion regained their two-goal advantage just past the hour mark when McPhee, on for Wilson-Denis, side-footed home from close range after a free kick by Charlie Oatway.

Hart made it four on 74 minutes with a long-range drive which gave McCarthy no chance and, after Coppell made two further substitutions with Dan Harding coming on for Adam Virgo and Chris May replacing Kuipers, McPhee wrapped it up with a back post header.

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