Steve Cotterill will shake hands with Dick Knight if he bumps into the Albion chairman at Withdean tomorrow.

The Burnley boss insists there are no hard feelings about being overlooked by the club he once served as a player.

Just over a year ago, an out-of-work Cotterill was on Knight's shorlist of four to succeed Steve Coppell as Albion manager.

The former Seagull was interviewed for the post, together with Mark McGhee, Iain Dowie and Leroy Rosenior. Knight plumped for McGhee and the rest, as they say, is history.

Cotterill said: "At the time it was disappointing, but I got a nice letter off Dick Knight and I look forward to seeing him at some stage tomorrow.

"It's not a problem. His selection ended up being right, because Mark got them promoted.

"It was great to see Mark and Bob Booker taking them up again last year. Mark has done a great job in tough circumstances."

Albion were still at the Goldstone when Cotterill played for them. He scored four goals in 11 games for Barry Lloyd's side in what is now known as the Championship during a spell on loan from Wimbledon 12 years ago.

"I always enjoy coming back down, even if it is Withdean and not the Goldstone," he said.

"There are some very good people who still work at the club and I am looking forward to seeing a few old faces again.

"I always get a decent reception from the supporters, which I appreciate.

"Obviously I want to win, nobody would expect anything else, but it will be nice to renew old acquaintances."

Cotterill made his name as a manager with his home town club Cheltenham.

He guided them from the Southern League to Coca-Cola League One in the space of five years before the briefest of stints at Stoke, including a 2-1 victory on his last visit to Withdean in September 2002.

Cotterill controversially quit the Potteries club to team up with another former Albion player, Howard Wilkinson, for an ill-fated spell at Sunderland.

Ex-Albion manager Micky Adams offered the 40-year-old a route back into management by adding him to his coaching staff at Leicester and he landed the Burnley post in the summer.

"I turned down a few jobs before Burnley," Cotterill revealed. "I wanted to get back in at a decent level.

"I'd heard a lot about the chairman (Barry Kilby) and he's a good guy to work with.

"We've got 12 pros signed, two trialists, three loanees and three kids. I think we have used the least number of players in the Championship.

"Things are tight and very tough. I've not been able to get many players in and the worst thing is we cannot cope when we have injuries.

"We had a full team in the Carling Cup when we beat Aston Villa, then against Tottenham in the next round we were without six players.

"If we can get a full team out we will give most a game. When we don't we can be a little bit disjointed."

Albion and Burnley are similar in other respects. Both have fared better away from home in the Championship and regard survival as the target.

"We had a bit of a blip at QPR (lost 3-0), but other than that we've had some good results away," Cotterill said.

"We beat Watford, drew with Wigan, Leicester, Reading and Ipswich, and beat Leeds, so we are doing okay with what we've got, as are Brighton.

"It's really nice to win in front of your own supporters, whoever you are, but if you get enough points to stay in the division it doesn't matter where the points come from.

"Staying up is my remit, because the budget has been slashed from last year. That is something we would also see as success."