Albion captain Gordon Greer has vigorously defended under-fire manager Sami Hyypia and blamed the players for letting him down.

Greer says the Finn “is as good if not better” than Gus Poyet and Oscar Garcia, who both steered the Seagulls into the Championship play-offs.

And he is adamant every member of the squad is right behind Hyypia and determined to dig the club out of the hole they are in.

Greer approached The Argus to speak out on behalf of the dressing room ahead of tomorrow’s trip to mid-table Wolverhampton Wanderers for the third-bottom Seagulls, which he misses with a knee injury.

The centre-half and long-serving leader insisted: “We’re right behind the manager. You can ask any one of the players and they would all say the same thing.

“We feel as a team that our performances have let him down a bit and we feel we need to take a bit of responsibility as well.

“The manager and the coaching staff have been great. It’s a difficult job in cirumstances, as they are at the moment, but they do their best and when we go over that white line it’s up to us on the park to produce performances. At the end of the day our performances haven’t been good enough.”

Greer skippered Albion to the play-offs under Poyet two seasons ago and under Oscar last season. He says the players are united in their belief that Hyypia can carry on the good work, in spite of the club’s perilous position.

“I’m speaking on behalf of all the team and we feel the gaffer is the right man to take us forward,” Greer declared.

“I’ve obviously been here when times have been really good under Gus and Oscar and we have got a manager here now who is as good if not better than both of them.

“We need to take our fair share of responsibility, whether it’s individual errors or what ever it may be from game to game, it’s just not been good enough.

“We’ve spoken amongst ourselves. We know we need to do better and we’ll be doing everything to get the results and improve our position in the table.”

Greer witnessed from the sidelines the vicious abuse directed at Hyypia during last Friday’s 1-0 defeat by fellow strugglers Millwall at the Amex.

The Glaswegian has been encouraged since then by a groundswell of support, willing Albion out of their predicament.

He said: “It’s a difficult situation for the manager, because he is ultimately the sort of figurehead at the club at the moment and when things aren’t going well he’s the first port of call.

“The fans, ever since I’ve been here, have been great and even now, I’ve met people in the street this week, and everybody is really positive and wishing us all the best and to get up that table.

“We are working really hard behind the scenes to improve our league position. In life sometimes everything is not going to go well all the time. We’re having a hard time at the moment but it’s not for a lack of effort or professional pride.

“We really care about the club and the one thing that we’ve got in common - the players, the fans, everybody - is that we all want the club to do well. We are doing everything we can to ensure that.”

Greer expects to be back to lead Albion’s fight against the drop early in the new year as he recovers from a long-standing knee problem.