IN THE days before marketing exploded, when replica shirts were a rarity, Albion bucked the trend by producing a unique football scarf bearing four words. It read: “Peter Ward is magic”.

To a generation of football fans in this part of the country, four words were sufficient.

Peter Ward arguably gave more pleasure to people in Sussex than any other sporting figure from this county.

He was the poster boy of a golden era for the club as Albion surged from the Third Division to the top-flight of English football.

Ward broke the Seagulls’ goalscoring record with 36 in 1976-77 as they were promoted to the Second Division, he scored a hat-trick on his debut for England under-21s at the Goldstone Ground and later went on to win a full cap – at the time, only the second Albion player to do so.

In all, Ward scored 95 goals in 227 appearances for Albion and simply mention of his name will send many a grown man in this area of the country gooey, this writer included.

When we asked Argus readers to pick their all-time Albion Greatest XI ten years ago, we put all the strikers into one pool and invited you to pick two names.

A younger element touted the virtues of another Seagulls legend, Bobby Zamora, as being as good as Ward but the voting suggested otherwise. Both players were picked for your Albion dream team but it was Ward who led the way with 49% of the vote while Zamora was a clear second with 26%.

This time we are doing something different because we are not asking you to pick between Ward and Zamora. Instead, we have chosen 20 strikers from across the decades and put them into two pools.

This week you will choose one striker from the ten names which we put forward, including Ward but plenty of other top names too.

Next week you will pick a second striker for the Albion Greatest XI from a different set of ten names which will include Zamora but also another striker who has won the hearts of fans since we asked you to vote ten years ago – Leo Ulloa.

The full list for next week’s vote is: Zamora, Ulloa, Bobby Smith, Kit Napier, Ian Mellor, Michael Robinson, Kevin Bremner, Mike Small, Kurt Nogan and Glenn Murray.

For now, though, turn your attention to this week’s list. For some, they need to look no further than one name but there are some top strikers we have put forward this week with plenty of goals among them and a trio who split opinion among fans.

Gordon Smith will forever be remembered as the striker who fluffed the chance to win the FA Cup for Albion against Manchester United at Wembley in 1983. It is extremely unfair, though, to sum up Smith’s career in that moment.

While also mentioning he opened the scoring in a 2-2 draw at Wembley, Smith was a clever link player who scored and made goals during four seasons with the Seagulls after joining for £400,000 from Rangers.

Andy Ritchie struggled to win over Albion fans because he was seen as a replacement for Ward but the former Manchester United man was top scorer for the Seagulls in the First Division with 14 goals in 1981-82.

Leon Knight netted Albion’s penalty winner in the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in 2004 but was a controversial figure who later fell out with manager Mark McGhee.

There is no doubting Garry Nelson’s popularity and 59 goals in 166 appearances is a return which puts him up there among the best. Terry Connor boasted a similar record, with 59 goals in 174 games including topping the scoring charts for three years on a trot.

Sergei Gotsmanov’s stay with Albion was short but certainly sweet with fans fondly remembering the time he waltzed around the Hull goalkeeper, raised his arm to celebrate the goal and then slotted home into an empty net.

Completing our list are John Byrne, Dean Saunders and Nicky Forster who all wore the Albion shirt with distinction.