If Albion are put on the spot again in Cardiff on Sunday then rest assured they will be well prepared.

The final of the play-offs against Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium could, just like the semi-final against Swindon, be decided by penalties.

Manager Mark McGhee has revealed the meticulous attention to detail in the build-up to the second leg against Swindon which helped the players hold their nerve in last Thursday's dramatic shoot-out at Withdean.

"We had a penalty clinic," McGhee said. "We divided the players into teams of five and made it into a little bit of a competition.

"I don't want to give away too many secrets but we made every single player determine exactly how he would take a penalty if he was asked, to tell us and stick to that.

"Every player that went up there knew exactly what they were going to do and had practised it. We knew then if they didn't score it wouldn't be because of indecision."

It is impossible to create the same sort of tension on the training pitch but Albion tried in their preparations to capture the sense of drama and distracting influences of a penalty shoot-out.

McGhee said: "They had a 30 yard walk up to the ball and we put all the others behind the goal and asked them to heckle and make them laugh to try to put them off."

When it came to the crunch the players came up trumps, even in the absence of regular taker Leon Knight who was supposed to take Albion's opening penalty.

He had already been substituted due to injury, so that task fell to Richard Carpenter.

"We had to fine tune it on the night," explained McGhee. "Leon would have been the first to take one, so we had to be prepared for him not being there.

"I believe you should have your best penalty takers first because you want to get them into the net, to get them started.

"If early on our keeper then saves one it takes the pressure a little bit off the lesser ones.

"They know if they miss we are not out. That way you hope to have two or three in the bag before coming to somebody who has not taken a penalty for a long time."

Chris Iwelumo, like Knight a 12-yard specialist, scored Albion's second penalty, substitute John Piercy the third and extra-time goal hero Adam Virgo the fourth.

Captain Danny Cullip was due to take the fifth but he was not required after Ben Roberts saved from Tommy Mooney and Andy Gurney struck a post.

Virgo had missed several times in training when McGhee advised him to swap poise with power.

"Penalty specialists like Leon and Chris can improvise," McGhee said. "I think for us lesser mortals the way to overcome the nerves and the atmosphere is with routine.

"You know what you are going to do, even to the point of where you are going to walk back to once you have placed the ball, how you are going to place your body and how many steps you are going to take.

"You just focus on that completely and then most of all concentrate on the ball striking. That is what it was all about for our penalty takers and to be fair they did it brilliantly.

"I spoke to Adam about the routine and striking the ball. He was wanting to sidefoot it and all sorts of stuff and I told him he is a power man, go up and bash it as hard as you can.

"He almost lifted the goals up. Swindon thought he had missed. They all jumped up."

Virgo was confident Albion would prevail once his diving header in the final minute of extra-time had levelled the aggregate score.

"We had the psychological edge. Mooney was saying to me during the game that he was struggling with a hamstring injury, so I knew when he was going up to take his penalty that he wouldn't be feeling confident.

"I was on such a high after scoring my goal that I would have taken one with my left foot.

"Fortunately for me it went in off the underside of the bar. I didn't actually mean that, although I walked back trying to look all cool as if I meant it!"

McGhee could do without the drama all over again on Sunday. The second leg against Swindon coincided with his 47th birthday, although on Sky they said he was 56.

"I felt about 76 by the end of the game," he said.

McGhee's men are guaranted to be roared on by a bumper crowd at the Millennium Stadium next Sunday.

More than half of the club's 30,000 allocation was sold when tickets went on sale on Saturday.

Some supporters had queued for up to eight hours to get tickets.

When Albion reached the 1991 play-off final, more than 30,000 people made the journey to cheer them on and a similar following is now expected in Cardiff.

The Seagulls Club are running four coaches to the final at Cardiff next Thursday. The coach price is £25 per adult and £20 for Seagulls Club members. The cost of seat tickets is £32.

Three of the coaches have already been sold out but there are spaces left on one of the coaches.

To reserve a place and arrange for ticket collections, simply contact Paul Kerr on 01273 604645.