Chris Hughton wants his Albion strikers to score more goals to turn draws into wins.

The Seagulls missed out on automatic promotion last season on goal difference, despite finishing joint highest scorers with champions Burnley and Brentford.

Their 72 goals were spread around, the four forwards providing a modest 33 in 123 appearances between them.

The tally of 17 draws was the joint second highest in the Championship, one fewer than QPR alongside Sheffield Wednesday, Cardiff, Preston and Leeds.

Converting just one of them into a victory would have been enough to reach the Premier League.

Hughton told The Argus: "Tomer (Hemed) went through a long period without scoring, came through and eventually ended up getting 17 goals.

"Probably, in a period when we got a lot of draws last year, the difference might have been making just even one of those draws into a win.

"So yes, you want a contribution from your strikers.

"For the team, the way we went about it last season and the goals throughout the team were great. It gives the team the feeling that everyone is contributing.

"I would settle for that again but you want your strikers scoring goals. Your strikers can be the difference between winning and drawing."

Hughton will be banking on the capture of Glenn Murray boosting the total from the front men.

Murray, playing catch-up after returning to the club from Bournemouth on a season-long loan, will play a part in the opening two friendlies at Crawley today and against Fulham at Aldershot on Tuesday.

Hughton said: "He's probably a week behind. I don't see any issues really going into the start of the season.

"Bournemouth weren't due to go back until a week after us. It all happened fairly quickly. He will be involved today and Tuesday. Physically it's not stopping him."

Bobby Zamora was released at the end of last season and loan signing James Wilson is back at Manchester United.

Hughton is after another striker to supplement Murray, Hemed and Sam Baldock (below).

The Argus: David Stockdale, Connor Goldson and Jiri Skalak are all absentees for the Crawley game.

Stockdale missed the training camp in Tenerife with an infected toe. Goldson was injured in the Canary Islands and Skalak did not return to the club until Thursday after featuring for the Czech Republic in the Euro finals in France.

Hughton said: "David will be doing far more from Monday. He won't be involved in the first two games, Crawley and Fulham, but he will be training by then.

"Connor's just taken a knock on his knee. We are assessing it at the moment. We are hoping he will be back in training soon."

"Jiri won't be involved at Crawley or Fulham on Tuesday. Although he won't have done what the players have over the last couple of weeks, he was still training a few weeks ago.

"His levels will not have dropped that much, so for him it's a different starting point."