Albion's match against Port Vale on Saturday is a special one for Gary Hart, and not just because he makes his 150th League appearance for the club.

The Seagulls' stalwart will always be grateful to the man in charge of the opposition, Brian Horton.

The former Albion captain was responsible for making Hart's dream come true.

He turned him from a nondescript non-League player and factory worker into a full-time professional.

Life was very different for Hart before Horton signed him from low-flying Stansted for £1,000 and a set of kit.

"I was waking up at six o'clock in the morning and working until five o'clock in a warehouse as a forklift truck driver," he said.

"I was playing pub football in a low division, really rubbish, so I was even over the moon to join Stansted.

"I'd always wanted to play professionally since about the age of 12, but I was rejected about three or four times.

"I was 20 or 21 and I thought to myself that it was never going to happen.

"It was nice in the end to get what I always wanted and Brian was the one who gave me my chance.

"He didn't have to, because the club basically had no money at all. I know I only cost £1,000, but a club doesn't want to waste money like that on somebody who has been playing really low in non-League. I owe it to him for getting me into the game."

Hart quickly had a price tag of over £500,000 put on his head by chairman Dick Knight and an extended contract in his pocket.

The orthodox striker turned right winger has gone on to be virtually an ever-present in the first team in his three and a bit seasons with the club.

Hart was not the only shrewd signing by Horton during his brief reign. He made a £100,000 profit on Paul Holsgrove by selling him to Hibernian within a month of capturing him for nothing.

Time has tended to mask the good work done by the Seagulls' inspirational leader through the club's glory era of the late Seventies and early Eighties.

When Horton replaced the sacked Steve Gritt in February 1998 Albion were next-to-bottom of the Third Division. When he left 11 months later to rejoin Vale, who were then in Division One, Albion were in a play-off place.

That was no mean achievement, considering home matches were being played at Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium and Horton had inherited a playing squad far inferior to the one built so expertly by Micky Adams to win the Third Division title last season.

Horton was also responsible for putting the youth set-up in the capable hands of Martin Hinshelwood and Dean Wilkins.

"Although my time as manager was short I think I did well for the club," Horton said.

"I got them somewhere where they should have been, because it is too good a club to be struggling.

"With hindsight and in an ideal world I should have stayed until the end of the season and we could have got into the play-offs, but it doesn't work like that in football.

"I had a great relationship with the chairman and the Board and I am really pleased they are doing well. I still think the majority of Brighton fans realise what a good job I did."

Horton was so popular in his first spell with Albion that he was named player of the season in 1976-77, even though Peter Ward had scored a record-breaking 36 goals.

The bearded midfielder managed a Sunday side in those days which ironically used to train on the Withdean pitch.

A section of fans, perhaps too young to appreciate his previous contribution, have never forgiven him for quitting to return to Vale, where he began his playing career before signing for the Seagulls.

The lopsided view of life which prompted a minority to send Adams hate mail when he moved to Leicester will ensure Horton a frosty welcome from some at Withdean on Saturday.

But Hart said: "There is no need for him to get any stick. He basically started the ball rolling. I know we weren't winning every week, but he put a nice little team together without any money.

"When a big club like a First Division club comes up you have got to go for it, like Micky Adams has just done."