Older Albion fans will have painful memories of a clash with Blackpool 23 years ago.

Going into the final Saturday of the season Albion had promotion to the First Division in their sights.

Promotion rivals Southampton and Tottenham were meeting at The Dell and, providing they did not draw, Albion would go up if they beat relegation-threatened Blackpool.

A crowd of 33,431 packed into The Goldstone and the gates were locked at quarter to two, such was the interest. It was the club's third 30,000-plus crowd in the space of a fortnight.

Against Blackpool, Albion did what was required of them with goals from Peter Ward and a Brian Horton penalty securing a 2-1 win.

However, cheers turned to tears when news filtered through that, unsurprisingly, Southampton and Spurs had shared a goalless draw which meant both were promoted.

Players who have appeared for both clubs include Peter Suddaby, Kit Napier, Billy McEwan, Eric Potts, Simon Steele and Bobby Smith.

Suddaby also provides a link with Wycombe Wanderers, who he managed in the Conference from August 1987 to January 1988.

The most obvious current link with Wycombe is defender Paul McCarthy, who made 217 appearances for Albion after progressing from the youth ranks.

Two other former Albion men have also managed Wycombe: John Gregory, now at Aston Villa, and Neil Smillie, who took charge in a caretaker role.

Others to have played for both include Paul Emblen, Geoff Cooper, David Gipp and Martin Lambert.

Links with Wrexham are even fewer, with the most obvious being Micky Thomas who started and finished his career with the Welsh side and had an inglorious spell on the South Coast in between.

Jimmy Case, Kevin Bremner and Mark Cartwright are among a handful of others who have appeared for both.