Albion fan Steve Winterburn is thrilled to be following in the footsteps of Frankie Howard.

Winterburn is the club's new head groundsman, with responsibility for overseeing the pitches at Withdean and the University of Sussex at Falmer where the Seagulls train.

He is Albion's first full-time groundsman since long-serving Howard hung up his pitch fork at the Goldstone.

"I must have been seven or eight when I first went to watch Albion and I was a regular at the Goldstone," said Winterburn. "I know Frankie, although I didn't meet him until a couple of years ago.

"I am very pleased to get the position. It is going to be a very interesting job with a lot of responsibility."

In the long-term that will include Winterburn's input into Albion's new stadium at Falmer.

"It will be my job to draw up the specification for the new pitch at Falmer, so there is a lot of investigative work to be done into the pitch design," he explained.

"I've seen some plans and into the new year I will start putting some ideas together."

The more immediate task for 36-year-old Winterburn, born in Hurstpierpoint but now based in Burgess Hill, is to build bridges with Ecovert South. Albion's relationship with the company responsible for maintaining Withdean and the training pitches has been strained to say the least.

The club spent £130,000 in the summer on new drainage and re-turfing Withdean but boss Peter Taylor and his players recently complained that it is too firm underneath the surface.

Taylor's predecessor Micky Adams was so dissatisfied with the state of the training pitches that Albion moved to Ardingly College and then Christ's Hospital School in Horsham while Ecovert carried out improvements.

Winterburn, the former head groundsman at Mowden School in Hove for two years and prior to that at the University of Sussex, said: "The club felt they needed somebody to look after their interests and I can devote as much time as is needed to Withdean.

"Ecovert's ground maintenance team maintain the pitch. They work to a programme and I will monitor that very closely for the club, liaise very closely with Peter Taylor and his staff and add or omit things as the club requires."

Martin Perry, Albion's chief executive, said: "We have decided to employ our own specialist to make sure that the players and manager are given the very best conditions."