Craig Mackail-Smith has shrugged off his £2.5million price tag and declared himself ready for Albion’s Championship test.

The Seagulls’ biggest ever signing has no worries about the size of the transfer fee as he leads the attack in today’s opener against Doncaster Rovers at The Amex.

Mackail-Smith, top scorer in League One last season with Peterborough, told The Argus: “I don’t really take any notice of it. Obviously, it’s a great honour for Brighton to pay that much money for me but I think if you start thinking about it you put pressure on yourself to out-perform.

“I think it’s just a fantastic thing and it’s just a case of me going out and doing the job I was doing at Peterborough for Brighton and then I will be a success.”

Mackail-Smith has added his name to a long list of highly-rated strikers in the Championship, including Cardiff’s Kenny Miller, who he links up with in the Scotland squad next week.

He said: “There are some very good strikers in this league and you get punished if you make a mistake, because of their quality.

“It’s good that I can watch these strikers, watch how they play and take bits and pieces from their game to work on but I am looking forward to testing myself again in the Championship and hopefully scoring goals.”

Doncaster’s front line is led by the dangerous Billy Sharp and Albion chief Gus Poyet has warned that the Yorkshiremen, among the favourites for relegation, should not be under-estimated. “We are not thinking that way,” said Poyet. “Doncaster are a very good team in terms of the way they play and keep the ball and how difficult they make the game for the opposition.

“They are coming to a beautiful pitch, perfect conditions for them to play their own game, so we need to be good when we’ve got the ball and especially when we haven’t.

“I think it’s going to be a great test for us, a different test to the week after when we go away to Portsmouth and Cardiff, but there is more quality in this division without any doubt.”