You need a bit of swagger to make a fashion statement in front of an audience of hundreds at an awards ceremony.

To walk onto stage wearing a bold check suit, trousers short enough to reveal no socks and black shoes.

So it was at the Amex on Sunday evening as Connor Goldson collected his prize for Albion's young player of the season.

It is not arrogance or showmanship from the highly promising centre-half, just an inner belief that he is in an environment where he belongs.

With a club on the cusp of history, of reaching the Premier League (not the First Division) for the first time, rather than playing yo-yo in the bottom two rungs.

Goldson, 23, sensed his moment had arrived when Albion swooped in the summer.

He had rejected a move to Swansea a year earlier to continue his education with Shrewsbury but the temptation this time proved too strong.

 

The £600,000 Albion paid to land him on a four-year contract looks a snip now but it has not been the smoothest of rides for Goldson to a prize judged by the coaching staff.

Not initially as he stood fourth in line behind captain Gordon Greer, Lewis Dunk and another of the newcomers, German rock Uwe Huenemeier.

Nor when Greer was injured at Brentford on Boxing Day and Albion lost their next two games at the Amex, including a decisive own goal by Goldson against his home town club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Goldson, reflecting on his move south, told The Argus: "It was a big decision. I knew at the end of last season deep down in my heart that it was time to leave Shrewsbury.

"When Brighton came calling and I came and saw the training ground, spoke to the manager and saw the stadium it was obviously the right place for me.

"There were times in the first six months where I didn't doubt myself or the move but I was just frustrated by not playing.

"But I'm the kind of person that tries to work hard and stay positive. That's the only way you get your just rewards.

"Keep working hard, trying to be patient, don't sulk and have a bad attitude. I've always been brought up that way.

"So I was lucky enough to have that attitude in place to keep working and when my opportunity came I was ready."

The partnership Goldson has forged with Dunk since Greer was injured again at Rotherham in January has been an integral part of the promotion push.

The only game a fit-again Greer has played since then was for Scotland, such has been the form of his deeply superstitious replacement.

Tommy Elphick, one of Goldson's Albion predecessors now living the Premier League dream with Bournemouth, used to nut and kick a goalpost as part of his pre-match ritual.

"I've never headed a goalpost but if you wanted to know my superstitions you would probably be here all night," Goldson revealed. "I'm really bad! Dunky always hammers me for them.

"In the warm-up I do six of every exercise. When I come out I have the same routine.

"We get into a line, two jumps, a big jump, then I'll sprint by the fans and do stretches. I do the same thing for every game. That's just my way."

This idiosyncratic formula is paying off. The alliance between the laid-back Goldson and the £5 million-rated Dunk, who is just 13 months older and who has bounced back majestically from a dodgy spell over Christmas, has helped Albion win 13, draw four and lose only one of their last 18 games to set up a thrilling finale to the automatic promotion race.

"I feel quite calm," Goldson said. "Obviously there are times where you have nerves but I know everything I need to do to get myself mentally prepared.

"By the time the whistle goes all your nerves and any pressure that you feel drops straight away and it's just business as usual.

"It's relief when goals go in, you feel a lot worse when goals go against you, but we know we are in a crucial time. We are all coping with it very well, as you can see by recent performances."

Two more wins against Derby and Middlesbrough to add to five on the bounce and Albion will be up. The biggest two games of Goldson's career?

"I don't look at it like that," he said. "I don't compare any match to any other. I always give 100 per cent in every training session and every game, that's all I can do.

"I don't think there is any point in thinking 'This is a bigger game, I need to do this or that'. I just need to play my game and the team need to play their game.

"We've said in team meetings we don't need to change anything because what we've done has got us here. If you start to change now then you start to fall.

"We are just going to do exactly the same as we have done all season and personally I'm going to do the same as in every single game, give 100 per cent. Hopefully that's enough."

It would be by now for Albion, Boro and Burnley in almost any other year. "It's crazy," Goldson said.

"We said on the bus (after Charlton) 87 points in League One or League Two and you are promoted already. But we are in a position, all three teams, of win two games and you are promoted.

"It's up to us, it's in our hands. We'd rather it be in our hands than anyone else's. The Premier League is what we have all wanted all season. We feel confident."