JEFF Wood might have a few awkward questions to answer if Gary Hart completes a personal treble on Boxing Day.

Hart, who scored on his two previous Withdean outings, is in line to return to the Albion squad for the Boxing Day tussle with Barnet, where Wood is part of the coaching staff.

But the busy little frontman from Essex could well have been lining up for the visitors had it not been for Wood's timely intervention 18 months ago.

The former Seagulls boss, who now works with John Still and Tommy Cunningham at Underhill, revealed: "I know Barnet wanted to sign Harty.

"Fortunately the manager at Stansted was a personal friend of mine and we dived in just in front of John to get him."

Wood's two-and-a-half-month stint in the Albion hot seat last season was his first taste of senior management. It was also, he insists, his last.

He added: "I'm doing three or four days a week at Barnet, I take the goalkeepers at Colchester and I'm coach at Chesham in the Ryman League.

"I'm not really a manager. I've always looked upon myself as a coach.

"But circumstances dictated that I had to put my name in the frame at Brighton when Brian Horton left.

"If I hadn't done it, someone like Micky Adams would have come in and brought in their own people.

"That's how these things work in football.

"But I enjoyed myself at Brighton and I've got good memories, especially of the year we kept them in the League."

Wood, who still isn't sure whether he will make the trip to Withdean, works with goalkeepers and outfield and players at Underhill.

But the top shot stopper under his wing is the highly-rated Lee Harrison, a player Micky Adams knows well.

It was Adams who let Harrison go to Barnet during their days together at Fulham.

The present Albion manager said: "I needed an experienced goalkeeper at the time so I released Lee.

"But he's matured over that time and become a very good goalkeeper."

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