Darren Freeman aims to make Albion a cut above the rest of the Third Division this season with a dramatic new hairstyle.

The familiar flowing locks of the Seagulls' hotshot have been replaced by a close crop.

Bookies have already chopped Albion's promotion odds and now Freeman has given them a head start.

"I just felt I needed a bit of a change, something different," he said. "It's going to be a new me.

"I'd had my hair long ever since I joined Worthing about ten years ago.

"It hadn't been cut since then, just trimmed, so it was a real shock to the system when I looked in the mirror."

The father-of-two, a snip when Albion signed him on a free transfer last summer, added: "People I know haven't recognised me. They have walked straight past.

"They say I look a lot different, but both of my boys want their hair like mine now as well."