Albion boss Gus Poyet has welcomed soaring expectations after his side cruised to the top of the table.

And he has warned the rest of the Championship there is still plenty of room for improvement from his revised squad.

Last night’s 3-0 romp against promoted Sheffield Wednesday at The Amex lifted Albion above former leaders Blackpool ahead of today’s games and there is a growing conviction the Seagulls can stay in contention for promotion.

Poyet told The Argus: “I’ve got no problem with that. I prefer to see myself on top than tenth, 12th or 15th and if that brings expectation we’ll take it. It’s not an issue. We are better than last year. We are stronger and we have got a better squad.”

Poyet started with Dean Hammond on his return to the club and gave late run-outs to his other deadline signings Stephen Dobbie, Andrea Orlandi and David Lopez.

He said: “It was a good night, a perfect night. You never know what is going to happen after an international break but I knew we needed two weeks to explain to the new players the things that we do and how we do it. I am still not 100% convinced they all understand perfectly, so that is why I decided to only play Deano.

“Maybe the changes were too late but I was expecting to have the ball a lot more with the players that were on the pitch. We can improve definitely, because of the quality of Andrea, Dobs and David Lopez. That is something I am looking forward to.”

Poyet reserved special praise for man of the match Bruno, who supplied second half goals for Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Buckley after Wayne Bridge’s deflected free-kick in the first half.

He said: “How he didn’t get man of the match in the previous two home games I don’t know. The way he set up the second goal was worth the admission money alone.”