Adam Virgo has rejected the possibility of Lewis Dunk emulating his successful conversion from defender to free-scoring striker for Albion.

Virgo says the club are now in a different situation to his Championship rescue act during the Withdean era.

Dunk is the Seagulls' leading marksman this season under Sami Hyypia.

His equaliser at Huddersfield on Tuesday night was the young central defender's fifth goal of the campaign.

And with strikers Sam Baldock, Chris O'Grady and Adrian Colunga all yet to get off the mark since signing in the summer after Leo Ulloa's move to Leicester, supporters are wondering whether Dunk could do a job up front.

The answer, as far as Virgo is concerned, is an emphatic no, despite his own success as a stand-in striker for Mark McGhee during Albion's return to the Championship in 2004-05.

Thrown forward to solve a striker shortage, he scored freely before returning to the defence to help stave off the threat of relegation.

A decade on, Virgo insists it would be wrong for Albion to repeat that emergency measure.

He told The Argus: "If they sent him (Dunk) up front now I think it would send completely the wrong signal out to everybody of where the club is at. I don't think it would help Sami one bit.

"I think it's great that he's scoring goals but I've had this on Twitter a lot people saying this. The club were in a different situation when I went up front.

"If, for instance, they had sold Leon Knight for £5 million and then Mark McGhee said to me play up front, the fans would have been saying 'Hang on a minute. We've just got £5 million and we are sticking a right-back up front.'

"Regardless of whether I did well or not we had no other choice and, fortunately for Mark, it worked. It could have gone completely the other way and been an absolute disaster.

"The club has moved on a lot from that. If Baldock, O'Grady and Colunga were injured, LuaLua suspended and they had nobody else then I would say maybe stick him up front to see what he does, because he could win headers, hold up the ball.

"But I now think the club is in a completely different situation. It's great he is scoring goals but I am more concerned about the amount of goals he is involved in conceding, even though they are obviously not all down to him.

"It goes back to the club's recruitment. It doesn't look good, the centre-halves keep scoring.

"What signal would it send out to the season ticket holders when we've got a fantastic stadium, fantastic training ground, fantastic new era of the club going forward, and we are looking at a centre-half scoring goals up front because the three players up front can't score a goal between them?"

Despite his reservations, player turned TV and radio pundit Virgo believes Albion could make better use of Dunk when chasing a goal towards the climax of matches.

The ex-Celtic defender, summariser for BBC Radio Sussex for Rotherham's visit this Saturday, said: "I think they could maybe push him up front late on in games, which I don't think they do enough.

"They leave it until literally the last minute. I think that could be a difference."