Albion have been urged to relish making history at The Amex next season.

The Seagulls have the chance to set a club record for home attendances, beating the average gate of 25,264 who cheered skipper Brian Horton and his men at the Goldstone Ground back in 1977-78.

Albion will have about 22,000 season ticket holders watching them in the Championship next term and are increasing capacity to more than 27,500.

Horton told The Argus: “That is fantastic. It just shows what the support is like down there.

“The stadium is very impressive and the fans have got what they deserve.

“Brighton fans were fantastic when I played there and even when I was managing and we were playing home games at Gillingham.

“So it doesn’t surprise me one little bit to hear they are selling so many tickets.”

Albion expect to sell out of season tickets. They will offer an away allocation of up to 3,300 which will allow about 2,000 tickets to be sold to home fans on a match-by-match basis.

Those record-breaking crowds at the Goldstone saw Horton’s men narrowly miss out on a second successive promotion but they made it into the top flight a year later.

There is a similar buzz around The Amex and Horton believes the current squad should enjoy it.

He added: “We had good, strong players and the crowd played their part. We took 10,000 to Newcastle the day we clinched promotion.

“They were the most enjoyable days of my time playing, even though I went on to Luton and we did fantastically well there.

“The only thing I would say to Brighton is the Championship is an unbelievable league.

“There are so many teams who will get crowds like Brighton.

“It’s a tough division to get out of, a very even division, but Gus (Poyet) is doing a great job.”

Horton parted company with Macclesfield towards the end of last season after agreeing to go in on a fire-fighting mission.

He is now keen to get back into football.

TOP AVERAGES.

1977-78: 25,264.

1979-80: 24,795.

1958-59: 22,460.

1978-79: 22,074.

1976-77: 20,183.

2011-12: 20,055