Boss Chris Hughton has dismissed talk of an easy run-in for Albion opening their route to the Premier League.

Only one of the eight sides the Seagulls have left to play are in the top 11 in the Championship - Hughton's old club Norwich.

Six of the others are in the bottom ten, including Saturday's visitors Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham, another of Hughton's former clubs, who are at the Amex next Tuesday.

Albion conclude the campaign at Aston Villa, currently 12th.

Forensic dissection of the matches remaining for the three main automatic promotion contenders - Albion, Newcastle and Huddersfield - is a big talking point for fans.

Hughton is conscious of the straightforward-looking nature of Albion's April and May fixtures, but mindful of the pitfalls tackling several teams still involved in the battle to beat the drop.

He said: "It's something we are aware of, but we lost at Nottingham Forest and had a very tough game at Rotherham.

"It is always about treating the next game with the respect it deserves. There are no easy games in this division.

"I've consistently said you can beat anybody - but you can lose to anybody as well.

"I anticipate that the sides around us are not going to lose too many games, so the onus has to be on ourselves looking after our own business and winning the amount of games we need to win."

Opponents stuck in no man's land, with no realistic prospect of going up or down, are traditionally regarded as the ones you want to play as the finishing line approaches.

Only Villa and Queens Park Rangers, the next away opponents on April 7, fall into that category for Albion, although Hughton is wary of jumping to any conclusions about motivation levels.

"Once players get onto a football pitch they want to win games," he said. "There is a reason for players or a team to want to do well.

"It is always spoken about, that position with somebody in mid-table towards the end of the season, not going to go up, not going to go down.

"Are they going to fight any harder? Well, they are not going to fight any less and any thoughts of it not meaning so much for them, the other side of it is they are a team playing with a little bit more freedom, a little bit less pressure.

"So for as many reasons as there are that it should go a certain way, there will be as many for it to go another way.

"I keep saying, in this division you can lose any game. Some of our good results have been against top teams. Probably one of our poorest performances was Brentford. We caught them at a time when they weren't in blistering form, but they were very good at the Amex.

"Probably most people would have had us down to win that one. Every game you have to go into it the same way and hope you can play well enough to get a good result.

"The moment you start thinking it's going to be an easier fixture than the last one, it's not."

The Argus: Newcastle's next two opponents, Wigan and Burton at home, are both in the bottom four, but the leaders have been much more vulnerable under Rafaz Benitez (above left) at St James' Park than on their travels.

They also have to entertain three teams in the top half, fourth-placed Leeds, Preston and Barnsley.

The north-east giants have only three away games left, at sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday, mid-table Cardiff and Ipswich, who are not safe yet.

Huddersfield's home games are a mixed bag. Fulham, Norwich and Preston are the three teams immediately outside the play-off places.

Burton are at the other end of the table, last day visitors Cardiff in the comfort zone.

Away from home, Dave Wagner (below) takes the Terriers to tenth-placed Derby under their new boss Gary Rowett and three of the bottom nine in Birmingham, Nottingham Forest and Wolves.

The Argus: Their game in hand against Wolves is not until the penultimate midweek of the season, which increases the chances of the promotion places being decided late-on.

Former Championship and Premier League defender turned Sky Sports tactics expert Danny Higginbotham said: "They scored late goals against Villa, Leeds and Reading.

"They are a very good, fit team. They have a way of playing which gets the better of most teams in the Championship.

"I just wonder how much of an effect the injury to (Shane) Duffy is going to have, because Brighton have a lot of consistency in the side.

"There are good partnerships, so Uwe Huenemeier has got to build that partnership now with (Lewis) Dunk.

"I change my mind from week to week. The difference between Huddersfield and Brighton is still no-one is talking about Huddersfield getting promotion.

"It's just about how Brighton handle that pressure 'Oh, they're guaranteed automatic'. Huddersfield have closed the gap."

Top Three Fixtures

Newcastle: Wigan (h), Burton (h), Sheffield Wednesday (a), Leeds (h), Ipswich (a), Preston (h), Cardiff (a), Barnsley (h).

Albion: Blackburn (h), Birmingham (h), QPR (a), Wolves (a), Wigan (h), Norwich (a), Bristol City (h), Aston Villa (a).

Huddersfield: Burton (h), Norwich (h), Nottingham Forest (a), Preston (h), Derby (a), Fulham (h), Wolves (a), Birmingham (a), Cardiff (h).

And Leeds (4th), just in case: Reading (a), Brentford (a), Preston (h), Newcastle (a), Wolves (h), Burton (a), Norwich (h), Wigan (a).