Chris Hughton has challenged his Albion players to buck the trend of most teams in the Championship by sustaining their unbeaten run.

The Seagulls will achieve their best undefeated league sequence of the season if they stretch it to five games at Bolton Wanderers today.

They had four straight draws under Sami Hyypia in September and October. Their current form of two draws followed by two wins was mirrored under Hyypia, caretaker Nathan Jones and Hughton in December and January.

Now Hughton wants them to go at least one better after back-to-back home wins against Birmingham and Leeds to avoid being sucked back into the relegation dogfight.

He said: “The consistent teams are the teams in the top six. With the rest of us, and that includes a very big group, it’s about trying to get that consistency.

“You can go on a good run but we’ve all in this group found it hard to sustain it.

“We have to be conscious that we’ve had two good results. The results on Tuesday went very well for us as regards the teams around us but if we don’t keep up that level it can very quickly change. That is something we have to be very conscious of.”

Bolton’s revival under former Celtic chief Neil Lennon, who faced competition from Hughton and others in landing the post, has stalled with a hat-trick of defeats and they are back below the Seagulls on goal difference.

Hughton said: “Since Neil’s come in they have done extremely well. They have taken a little bit of a dip of late but that’s normal, going in there achieving what he achieved, but they are very good at home. I expect a very tough game.”