Albion clinched promotion to the Premier League last night – after owner Tony Bloom picked the players up off the floor and told them they would do it.

Bloom went into the dressing room at the Amex last May to deliver a rallying cry to a squad devastated by an injury-crippled exit from the play-offs against Sheffield Wednesday on the back of missing out on automatic promotion to Middlesbrough by two goals.

Yesterday’s 2-1 win against Wigan, combined with Huddersfield’s subsequent draw at Derby, sent the Seagulls up just as Bloom predicted.

The owner, who has poured £250 million of his personal fortune into the club, told The Argus: “Eleven months ago I went into the changing room at the end of the Sheffield Wednesday game and the players were on the floor, I was on the floor.

“I looked around and just said: ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and we will come back from this and do it next season’. They’ve done it. It’s just an amazing performance.”

Fans invaded the pitch, Bloom celebrated wildly in the directors’ box, and the players followed suit in the press box below after Glenn Murray’s 22nd goal of the season in the first half and Solly March after the break saw off relegation-haunted Wigan, who replied late-on through sub Nick Powell.

Bloom said: “It’s an amazing day, not just the day and not just the season, but a number of seasons where the club has grown.

“We’ve got to the play-offs three times in the last four seasons and we are on 92 points with three games to go. That is an amazing effort and we’ve thoroughly deserved it.

“Words can’t describe what Chris (Hughton) has done this season and all the players, the teamwork, the camaraderie. It really is fantastic.”

Bloom turned down offers totalling around £20 million for Anthony Knockaert, Lewis Dunk and Dale Stephens last summer, despite a 2015-16 loss for the club of £26 million.

He said: “It was really important that we kept together those main players that went so close last season. You can’t guarantee anything but we did as much as we could. We kept all our main players, we strengthened, helped all the players believe this was going to be our season, and so it has proved.”