Albion winger Elliott Bennett has warned that sacking manager Sami Hyypia is not the way out of relegation trouble.

Bennett has backed the Board’s decision to stick by Hyypia and insists the players are as much to blame for the Seagulls falling into the drop zone.

Third-bottom Albion face fellow Championship strugglers Millwall at the Amex tonight desperate for only their second win in 17 games.

Some fans expected Hyypia to be axed by now but Bennett, back on loan from Norwich, said: “I don’t think that’s the case at this club, which is nice to see, because you can keep sacking managers and changing managers.

“A manager can only tell a group of players how he wants them to play. He can’t play the game for them, it’s not PlayStation.

“As a group of players we have to take responsibility. I’ve only been here for four games but I take responsibility for my performance on the pitch and the results we’ve been getting and as a group you have to do that.

“You can’t level everything at the manager, that’s too easy, because if you change the manager and a new manager puts a plan in and we don’t do that we are going to lose games as well.”

Bennett, a key member of Albion’s 2010-11 League One winning squad under Gus Poyet before joining Norwich, is enjoying working under Hyypia in a loan spell extended until the end of 2014.

He said: “If you look at the manager’s career as a player, anyone who has succeeded the way he has, you have to be driven, you have to have the winning mentality and he’s won many things and he’s passing that onto us.

“A lot gets aimed at managers and when you take the manager’s job you are putting your head above the parapet to get it shot off. As players you’re kind of hiding behind the trenches. You’re getting a bit of flak but not sacked like managers do.

“As a group of players we take as much responsibility as the manager because we’re the ones that cross the white line and win or lose games.

“The manager could send us out with the best tactics but if you don’t perform you’re not going to win games in this league. It’s not a league where you can just roll teams over willy nilly, you have to have a plan and put that plan into action.

“After 20 games the position in the table says that we haven’t done that well enough as a squad of players.

“The manager is working as hard as he can. We are putting on brilliant training sessions, he is talking to the lads constantly, we have meetings about the opposition. I don’t see how he can do anymore.”