Albion's boy from the Rhondda is making a myth of the adage that two's company, three's a crowd.

Nathan Jones could not be happier as Cardiff head for the Amex bidding to become the first side to beat the Seagulls in the Championship this season.

The Welshman, the Englishman who played for Ireland and the Scotsman have other ideas.

What sounds like the opening line of a gag has gelled into a formidable triumvirate steering Albion towards the Premier League dream.

It could have been awkward for Jones, now first team coach after two reviving games as caretaker manager last Christmas following the departure of Sami Hyypia.

Chris Hughton, appointed in the first instance to guide the club to safety, brought in Colin Calderwood as his assistant.

It had the potential for Jones to feel marginalised but the effervescent 42-year-old is getting on with the easy-going Hughton and Calderwood like a house on fire.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed my work," he said. "From day one I got on with Chris. Colin I knew from before. The dynamic we have I think is as good as anything I've ever known.

"I love coming into work every single day of my life anyway but there's a really special feeling about the place.

"In terms of Chris, you learn off him as a manager, as a man. Hopefully I add something to the dynamic. With Ben Roberts (goalkeeping coach) and Tom Barnden (strength and conditioning coach) as well, there's a really close-knit coaching staff as good as I've ever had in my career."

Behind closed doors at the lavishly equipped training complex in Lancing, there is no obviously defined pecking order as Hughton and his accomplices prepare the team meticulously for each match.

Jones explained: "Chris will take what he feels he wants and then the rest is up to me and Colin. Me and Colin have a fantastic relationship.

"Colin knows what kind of coach I am and the enthusiasm I have. We have a really good understanding in how we do stuff.

"Colin's a very humble guy. If I say to him 'Look, I'd like to take this today' it's no problem.

"Colin says the same to me. We've actually become really close, a closeness that probably defies the time we have been together. It's an excellent working relationship.

"I think we have got three really good people. Chris has his own strengths and is very experienced. Colin has been a manager, I'm a little bit more sort of youthful ann impetuous, want to do things. I think we have a really good balance.

"Hopefully that is coming through to the players and obviously coming through in results, because I don't think we'd have everything we have here without that relationship."

Jones, a left-back like Hughton in his playing days, might have reacted negatively to being overlooked for the managerial vacancy after Albion took four points from the two matches under his command last season, a battling Boxing Day draw at home to Reading and an invigorating victory at Fulham.

That is not his style. The positive outlook of the sprightly defender brought back to the club as assistant head coach to Oscar Garcia in July 2013, after seven years at Yeovil and a year in charge of the under-21s at Charlton, remains in tact.

"I'm at a club that I really love being at," Jones said. "I speak closely with the chairman, I speak closely with Paul Barber (chief executive).

"They know I am an ambitious guy and I want to progress and go on to be the best I can possibly be. But, in the meantime, I'm at a place where I feel I'm developing, getting challenged daily.

"That was another challenge for me when I first came in. I felt I had been plateauing and I wanted to move on. At Brighton I get challenged constantly. When Sami left it was another challenge for me.

"I feel I fulfilled it and stepped up to it, now I see this as a fresh challenge. There is a progression here at Brighton and I love being here, I enjoy working for the club.

"The club have been very loyal to me and I want to show that kind of commitment back. Even though you may have a tinge of disappointment it's not a lasting one. You realise that maybe, okay, this is the right thing to do now and I'm getting my head down."

Jones was linked with several lower league managerial posts in the summer, including Gillingham and Plymouth Argyle, a vacancy for which he was reportedly interviewed.

"At times I've had opportunities where clubs have enquired about me," he said. "I haven't always wanted to go and speak to those clubs. Sometimes an opportunity comes and you think 'this may be okay'. You go and speak, things don't quite materialise.

"I've had opportunities to leave the club but it has never crossed my mind to do that. The reason I am doing good work is because I am at a club where it is conducive to doing that.

"If ever there comes a time where I'm not wanted that might become a time to move on, or if an opportunity comes that I couldn't turn down.

"But at the moment I'm progressing here, it's a fantastic place to be in terms of everything and I'm very, very content."

It is not surprising that Jones was sought-after during the close season. His return to Albion was rather more low-key than that of former team-mate and close friend Bobby Zamora but he is establishing an eyecatching CV.

In a five-year playing career with Albion under five different managers, which began in 2000 when he was signed from Southend, he was part of three promotions and a relegation.

More than 150 starts for the club included the play-off final win in Cardiff against Bristol City before the long stint at Yeovil, where he ended up as assistant manager.

Jones was brought back to help Oscar because of his linguistic as well as coaching skills. He learnt Spanish playing there in his early twenties for Numancia and Badajoz after starting out with Merthyr Tydfil and Luton.

His star is rising fast. In June, Jones was pictured alongside Gareth Southgate and Roy Hodgson at St George's Park, helping out with the England under-21s' preparations for the Euro finals in the Czech Republic.

He said: "I have a close relationship with Gareth Southgate through initially our lads playing in the England set-up but then at games. You get to know someone, I see him at a lot of games.

"We just really struck up a relationship. Talking about football sometimes a five-minute conversation turns into 40, because we're like minded people.

"I have a lot of respect for him, I think he's a really good guy. He knows I'm ambitious and I want to coach and I want to learn.

"He invited me in to shadow. It worked out quite well. For half the time there Steve Holland was still away with Chelsea so I was able to take all the sessions, which was fantastic.

"Then, for the last few days, I was able to sit back and watch Steve Holland work. I felt very privileged to be in and around such an elite environment.

"Hopefully I added a little bit to it but I know I gleaned quite a lot out of it as well. It was a fantastic experience."