He was meant to fire Albion to the Premier League.

Four years on the goals have dried up dramatically and record buy Craig Mackail-Smith, released by the Championship strugglers, is set to make his farewell appearance at the Amex against home town club Watford.

Barry Fry says the Seagulls have only themselves to blame for Mackail-Smith’s failed £3 million move from Peterborough.

The father of Mackail-Smith’s partner, Amber, and Peterborough’s veteran director of football has blasted Albion and former boss Gus Poyet in particular for not getting the best out of the workaholic striker.

Mackail-Smith was bought in a blaze of publicity in the summer of 2011 as Albion moved into the Amex back in the Championship.

It seemed like a good fit after Poyet had guided them to the League One title at Withdean, a prolific replacement for top scorer Glenn Murray after letting him leave on a free transfer to arch-rivals Crystal Palace.

Mackail-Smith turned down West Ham and Leicester to sign for the Seagulls. Fry thought that was a mistake and believes he has been proved right.

The 31-year-old’s career has nosedived on the South Coast following a promising start, which included international honours with Scotland.

Thirteen months out with Achilles and ankle injuries did not help but Fry believes the main reason Mackail-Smith has ended up being released is that Albion have never played to his strengths by never using him as part of a twin strike force.

Fry, 70, told The Argus: “It doesn’t surprise me. He’s not played a lot and he’s not scored when he has.

“I spoke to Gus. People like West Ham and Leicester were in for him.

“He (Mackail-Smith) spoke to big Sam (Allardyce) and Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was in charge at Leicester at the time. But he spoke to Gus and he sold the club to him.

“When I spoke to Gus he said ‘I’m going to build the side around him. He’s got 36 goals for you, with the right people around him he’s going to take us into the Premier League’.

“He said all the right things and to be honest in my opinion he never did it. Playing one up front is not Craig’s game. He got 99 goals playing for us and the reason he got them was we played with two forwards.

“Craig worked his b*******, so did Aaron McLean. They both contributed to a lot of goals and assists.

“I told him at the time it was the wrong move. I thought he should have gone to West Ham but he wasn’t that convinced he was going to play every game at West Ham, whereas Gus sort of said ‘I’m going to build the side around you’.

“These things happen. He’s gutted because I don’t think the Brighton fans, who are absolutely brilliant, have seen the best of him. He has not been used right, no matter who has been manager.”

Former Barnet, Southend and Birmingham boss Fry has revealed there will be no shortage of takers for Mackail-Smith in the Championship.

Peterborough would love him back after he returned on loan there for three games last winter but the League One club will be outmuscled.

Fry said: “There are no hard feelings, there will be dozens of clubs that want him now. We would obviously be interested. I know because other managers have rung me about him.

“I know there will be Championship clubs, although we’d sign him like yesterday if we could.

“But we’re not going to compete with those Championships clubs that have asked me about him.

“I can understand Brighton as well. They paid £3 million for him in the end. The fee was two-and-a-half million and there was another five hundred grand on games, ten grand a game.

“So we’ve had £3 million, Brighton can look at it and say perhaps it hasn’t lived up to the billing, but I would say that as a football man he hasn’t been played right and it was a waste of time signing him to be quite honest if they were going to play him the way they played him.

“He’ll be all right. Like I say, there will be dozens of clubs, he just wants a run of games, there’s no question about that now.

“He’s been raring to go, Chrissy (Hughton) hasn’t used him. That’s up to Chrissy. Brighton is a brilliant club. The training ground is fantastic, Tony (Bloom) the chairman is absolutely different class. He deserves Premier League football and I hope he gets it.”

If the dream is achieved it will be without Mackail-Smith. Off the pitch he has settled in Sussex with Amber and their 21-month-old daughter, Isla, who Fry famously helped deliver at home in Horsham.

“They are very happy in Brighton,” Fry said. “They love Brighton, everything about it, but in football you have got to be prepared to move where ever your job takes you and they are prepared for that.

“It’s just one of those things in football, this transfer hasn’t worked out. What amazes me about managers is they see a player score 36 goals in one year and 99 in three seasons and then they try to play him in a different role. That absolutely baffles me.

“You sign a player for his assets, not what he can’t do, and then to play him in a different role and pay that sort of money? I like Gus, I think he played good football, but he didn’t build a team around him that’s for sure.

“It’s a pity because the other signings Brighton had off me – Robert Codner, Nicky Bissett, Graham Pearce – all came off.”