Steve Sidwell has unfinished business at Albion - a chance to play in the Premier League with a sixth different club.

The midfielder was convinced it was going to happen last season as he sat with his team-mates at the Amex at the annual awards dinner.

The Seagulls had just won for the fifth match in a row at Charlton. They were on a promotion roll but four games later the dream was in tatters, destroyed by two dropped points at home to Derby, a controversial red card for Dale Stephens at Middlesbrough and unprecedented injury problems in the play-offs against Sheffield Wednesday.

Sidwell had returned at that stage on loan from Stoke City to the club he first served temporarily as a teenager, when he was borrowed from Arsenal in 2002.

Now he is back permanently, eager to embellish further an impressive CV by adding Albion's name to that of Reading, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Fulham and Stoke as clubs he has played for in the top flight.

"It would be superb," he said. "We came within touching distance last year and I actually, honestly, thought it was going to happen.

"I really did. I just thought it was fate with what happened with the Shoreham (air) disaster and how the club sort of got with the community.

"We sat down and had the end-of-season awards and the videos were being played. I took a minute and thought (intake of breath) 'This is going to happen'. It looks like it is really going to come to life.

"It didn't but if we can get promoted and I can be a part of that then it'll be up there as one of the biggest achievements of my career.

"The infrastructure's here to see. It is all geared up for the Premier League. Look at the training ground, the stadium, the squad that's assembled now, the manager in place, all the staff.

"It's all there ready for us. It's just down to us to do the business."

Albion return to Hillsborough today, the scene of such improbable carnage in their 2-0 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday in the first leg of the play-offs.

An injury which forced off Tomer Hemed late in the first half launched a wretched chain of events which reduced them to ten men for the final half-hour.

The Argus: The Argus: Sidwell, 34 in December, said: "It certainly was something I've never experienced. Connor (Goldson) was off first, then I went off next. I am on the treatment table and then Anthony Knockaert comes through the door. It could not get any worse.

"As soon as I came off I was on the treatment bed, taped and iced up. Anthony came in. He was on a stretcher at one point, then off, trying to run it off.

"It was a case of is he going to come back on or not? There was talk of injections to numb the pain - it was just crazy. It obviously played a big part in the outcome of the play-off."

Sidwell recovered from a medial knee ligament injury to continue deputising for the suspended Stephens in the second leg, which ended in a 1-1 draw after an early battering for Wednesday.

He said: "It was adrenaline, drugs - obviously legal drugs - and just a personal satisfaction for me to go out and play well.

"It was important for me to finish on a high and play to my best. Individually I played well in that game, which may or may not have played a part in me getting a contract this year, but obviously the outcome was not what we wanted.

"We'll take it as a gee-up to go there and perform and hopefully come back with three points."

To achieve that Albion will have to end a winless Hillsborough hoodoo stretching back over 17 visits and more than a century.

The Argus: They will also have to manage it without not only Stephens, banned again after another dismissal at Ipswich on Tuesday, but the injured Beram Kayal (above) as well. One or both of them have been in the side in 73 of the last 74 Championship fixtures.

 

Sidwell, set to deputise alongside fellow summer signing Oliver Norwood, said: "They've been top performers. Dale was an unsung hero really throughout last season. I thought he probably deserved more accolades than he got.

"Games are more or less won and lost in the midfield area. They are gone but Ollie has played well when he's been called upon.

"He's got a great track record in this league, as I have as well, so I've got no doubt if we are picked we are going to perform at our highest level and try to win the game for the boys."

Beyond today's revenge mission, Sidwell believes Albion have equipped themselves to make amends for their May agony.

"Last year the starting 11 picked itself," he said. "We were very fortunate not to have injuries towards the end (before the play-offs) and the team was riding that wave. Everyone was a high and couldn't wait to play the next game.

"We lost a few over the summer, so it was very important that we strengthened in the areas we needed to - and we've done that.

"Duffers (Shane Duffy) has been a rock next to Dunky (Lewis Dunk) and Muzza's (Glenn Murray) a proven goalscorer. Goals win you games and if you look at other clubs, like Newcastle with Dwight Gayle, you need somebody like that. We've done that in recruiting Muzza."