Albion boss Sami Hyypia believes Christian Walton will grow into an even better goalkeeper after an accomplished debut at Spurs.

The giant England under-20s prospect replaced injured No. 1 David Stockdale at White Hart Lane last night.

Walton vindicated Hyypia’s decision to choose him ahead of the experienced Casper Ankergren in the Seagulls’ 2-0 exit from the last 16 of the Capital One Cup.

Hyypia told The Argus: “Chris will remember this night for the rest of his life. David Stockdale had a little problem with his finger and Chris knew in the morning he was going to play.

“It’s not an easy place to play your first game but he did very, very well. When we needed him he did his job very well. He will benefit from this performance. He wouldn’t have played if I didn’t have faith in him. He has improved a lot in the past few months and hopefully we can keep working hard to improve him even more.”

Hyypia was satisfied with the performance of his Championship toilers against high class opposition.

Tottenham, making ten changes to the team beaten at home by Newcastle in the Premier League on Sunday, won with second-half goals by sub Erik Lamela and Harry Kane to book a quarter-final tie at home to Newcastle.

Hyypia said: “I couldn’t ask more of the players. We knew it was going to be difficult. Tottenham are a good team with a lot of good players.

“If they make changes there is going to be a good player coming in anyway.

“We knew we’d have to defend and I’m very happy with the workrate and the effort the team gave.

“You can always analayse whether on the ball you could have done better. When Tottenham lost the ball they were quick and strong to press.

“Maybe sometimes we could have played through the pressing and the space but I’m very happy and happy with the defensive performance.”