Albion boss Chris Hughton is relieved his players have a much better pitch on which to parade their table-topping talents at Sheffield Wednesday tonight.

The Hillsborough playing surface was in an awful state when the struggling Seagulls drew 0-0 there in March.

Hughton says the improvement will benefit not only his players but those of Wednesday as well, still buoyant after knocking Arsenal out of the Capital One Cup last week to reach the quarter-finals.

He said: "It wouldn't be just me, probably their own players felt the same last season. It was arguably the poorest pitch in the division.

"It's good to see. Certainly, with the way they are playing, their players as much as any others that go there are probably delighted the pitch is at a different level.

"It's a wonderful stadium. For the Cup game last week they got some 33,000 in. It is that type of club that can pull in that sort of crowd when things are going well."