Times are good for mature exponents of the art of forward play and goalscoring.

Jermain Defoe, 34, and 35-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic figure prominently in the Premier League top scorers list.

Dip into the Championship and you discover Yann Kermorgant, also 35, still recording a double digit return.

Then, of course, there is Albion's Glenn Murray, at thirty-three-and-a-half, continuing to give central defenders a hard time and leading the challenge to reach the Premier League with 18 goals in 37 outings, six of those appearances from the bench.

All of them proving that age is just a number and no barrier to potent longevity.

"That's what they told me when I signed in January," jokes Murray, a reference to the two-and-a-half-year deal which turned him back into a permanent Seagull from Bournemouth following his successful return initially as a season-long loanee.

"I think it all boils down to your hunger really. Jermain Defoe (below) is the stand-out one at the moment. He is fantastic, scoring for England eight years after his last goal.

The Argus: "He is someone I look up to and admire. He went out to America and everyone thought that was him done, but he came back all guns blazing and has proved over the last two years how good he really is.

"He's kept himself right and I think players can do that for longer now.

"There is more for us in and around the clubs these days. It is catered towards longer careers now. You've got yoga, ice baths, oxygen chambers, more masseurs, more treatment, things like that.

"Football in general has evolved to look after older players and to prolong their careers."

Murray's career, which reaches 470 appearances and the chance to add to 168 goals against Blackburn Rovers at the Amex today, shows no sign of stalling, or indeed ending.

Kermorgant (below) announced this week that he will be retiring when his contract with Reading expires at the end of next season.

The Argus: Murray will be nearly 36 by the time his deal concludes, but there is a lot going on at Albion second time around to keep him feeling young.

Like weekly yoga, an unlikely activity when he was setting out on his football journey or, indeed, when he first joined the club at Withdean in League One.

"It was pretty unheard of," Murray said. "The game has changed significantly since I've been involved.

"I can remember when I left Brighton I don't even think we had a gym, one squash court with a few dumbbells - and it wasn't compulsory either.

"We didn't really do any leg weights or anything like that. Now I know certainly in all the Premier League and Championship clubs you do a lot more heavy lifting than you did five or six years ago. The game is improving all the time."

So is Murray a better player now than four years ago, when he launched Crystal Palace into the Premier League via the play-offs with a Championship-record 30 goals?

"Yes, in certain aspects," he said. "I'm sure in certain aspects I might not be.

"As you get older you become more composed, a little bit more confident. You might lose a yard. Luckily I haven't had too many yards to lose!

"I think you do progress in certain ways and decline in others."

The Argus: A serious knee injury sustained against Albion in the play-off semi-finals when at Palace (above) robbed Murray of nine months.

He had to wait until the following February for his Premier League debut, as a late substitute against West Brom at Selhurst Park, another fortnight for his first start in a home defeat by Manchester United.

More goals like the one that helped Albion to a 3-2 win at Blackburn in the depths of winter and they will be welcoming Mourinho's men next season.

 

That will provide Cumbrian Murray with a third crack at the top flight - his opportunities were limited at Bournemouth - after spending his first seven seasons in non-League and the lower divisions with the unfashionable likes of Carlisle, Stockport and Rochdale.

"A little bit of me regrets not getting there quicker and realising the potential I had," he said.

"But I think that makes me grateful for what I've got as well, makes me appreciate it.

"I see young boys at clubs today that get everything done for them. They don't have to clean any boots and then they go out on loan and it's a whole different world for them.

"It's quite a shock to the system and some of them can't handle it to be perfectly honest. I think I did it the right way, coming up the hard way, and I'm reaping the benefits now."