Russell Martin admits the desire to prove a few people wrong might be driving him on when he plays against Albion today.

But it is nothing new for the Norwich City and Scotland defender.

Those feelings of making a point have been there ever since the Seagulls let him go.

Way in the back of his mind, admittedly. It’s not something he is obsessed about by any means.

But Martin accepts he has felt he has a bit to prove ever since Albion let him go as a kid.

That desire has taken him all the way to international football and the Premier League.

The centre-back from Brighton thought he was going to make it with his local club for a while.

He said this week: “I went in two or three days a week when I was at college.

“I was played in all sorts of positions. I did enjoy playing for my hometown team for a bit.

“I thought I was going to get taken on and I didn’t.

“It’s probably been a big part of my career that I’ve wanted to go and prove the people wrong that didn’t want me to play for my hometown team.

“It’s worked out for the best in the end. I was young, there were other distractions, I was concentrating on academic stuff.

“It didn’t work out, I went to Wycombe and the rest as they say is history. There’s no hard feelings, it’s just the way football is.”

Martin will not be the first professional to have played against the team he used to support.

Quite how strong that support remains once the football-mad kid has grown into a professional varies.

But Martin admitted: “I don’t really have a relationship with them now.

“Growing up I used to go and watch them at the Goldstone, I saw the first game at the Withdean.

“I played there for a year, although I didn’t have a great time there as a youth team player. I grew up supporting them us a boy, it’s my hometown team but come Saturday it means absolutely nothing.

“I want them to do well but not at the expense of us and certainly not on Saturday. But after that I wish them all the best.

“I think the more you play as a professional, the more you lose that affinity to a team because the affinity lies with the team you’re playing for at that current point.

“I’ve spent just over five years here now and loved it and at this minute in time it’s my club and hopefully we’ll beat them.”