Paul McCarthy is making a nonsense of the notion that there is no loyalty in football nowadays.

He has just signed a new contract which will extend his stay with Saturday's shock FA Cup quarter-finalists Wycombe Wanderers to eight years.

The Irish centre half was at Albion for the same length of time until the problems engulfing the club in the mid-Nineties forced him to leave.

"I don't know why I have only had two clubs," admitted McCarthy. "I am very happy at Wycombe and I was happy at Brighton.

"At the time it was the right thing to go, because of the state the club was in.

"My wife was expecting our first child and the way things were I thought it would be more secure to move away. Nobody knew what was going to happen.

"But Brighton are my love really. It's a great club and it would be great to see them go up so that I can play against them next season."

McCarthy's affection for the area is such that he still lives in Sussex. He makes the 80-mile journey around the M25 to Wycombe from Crowborough, where he lives with his wife and three young daughters.

"In my local they are all Brighton fanatics, so I still follow the club," he said. "Micky Adams is doing a great job.

"I see Chappers (Ian Chapman) quite a lot, but the only player left from my era is Kerry Mayo and he was a kid when I was there."

McCarthy made 217 appearances for Albion before Wycombe bought him for £100,000.

Alan Smith was in charge at Adams Park then and McCarthy has also played for Wanderers under two former Seagulls.

John Gregory made him captain, a role he also enjoyed at Albion in succession to Steve Foster, but McCarthy fell out with Neil Smillie.

"Things didn't work out for Neil," he said. "I was on the list when he was in charge. We didn't see eye to eye."

McCarthy, 29, is now enjoying life under Lawrie Sanchez. "He is very honest and he has done an incredible job in turning the club around.

"We were bottom of the Second Division when he came. He kept us up and he's had no money to spend."

McCarthy has played a major role in Wycombe's amazing journey through to the last eight of the FA Cup.

He has scored four crucial goals, half the number he managed in his entire Albion career.

The former Republic of Ireland under 21 international grabbed the winner in the second round replay against Millwall.

He also scored at Grimsby in the third round, then again in the replay, and he equalised in the last minute of injury time in the fifth round replay at Wimbledon as Wycombe scrambled through on penalties.

Now McCarthy is going back to Filbert Street, a ground with happy cup memories from his Albion days. He was on the bench when Liam Brady's Seagulls won 2-0 at Leicester in the second round of the League Cup to complete a 3-0 upset on aggregate.

Fellow defender Stuart Munday scored a spectacular goal that night, so what price a repeat for McCarthy and Wycombe on Saturday?

"It's an achievement in itself getting this far. We are not expected to get a result, but if we do it will be fantastic."