Albion boss Sami Hyypia has warned that Darren Bent cannot be a one-man relegation saviour.

Hyypia has urged his players to take collective responsibility and show the character required to haul the club out of the danger zone.

The Seagulls have dropped into the Championship’s bottom three after losing 2-1 to Fulham at the Amex, despite ex-England striker Bent firing them ahead on his debut on loan from Aston Villa.

Hyypia said: “It is the responsibility of everyone. Darren can’t save us alone. Everyone has to pick up, toughen up, maybe concentrate more, to care more.

“Darren is a good addition and I know when we were able to get him it was a real buzz around the training ground.

“I got some messages from friends that it’s a good signing but we have to all take responsibility. We can’t just say ‘Darren is here, he’ll do it for us’.”

Hyypia acknowledges his players need to demonstrate resolve now that they have fallen into a relegation place for the first time with a disastrous run of just one league win in 15.

He said: “If we don’t have those kind of characters I would like as many as possible to step up and be a character for us, then we will get out of it.

“But, if we feel too sorry for ourselves and miserable and continue doing the wrong things or playing well until we score then forget everything, then we are not going to get out of it.

“Now the loan window is closed and we have six loan players already, so we can’t add any numbers until January and we still have a few games before January.

“So we need to all regroup, be together, help each other, encourage each other and hopefully we have one or two stepping up on the character side or mental side, then we get out of it.”