It was the blueprint for Albion's success under Micky Adams.

Tremendous team spirit, combined with a striker's deadly eye for goal, carried Adams' Seagulls to the League Two title six years ago.

Andy Crosby and Scunthorpe have borrowed the blueprint and they are now on the threshold of a place in the Championship.

The runaway League One leaders' visit to Withdean on Saturday is not just a nostalgic return for Crosby but also a reminder of how Adams shaped the side in which he figured prominently in the centre of defence.

"Of course I am looking forward to it," Crosby said. "It will be my first time back since I left. It seems a long time ago now.

"I have fond memories. Things have gone really well since I came to Scunthorpe but up until then that was definitely the best time of my career.

"They were a great set of players, it was a great part of the world to live and the fans were superb.

"The spirit we had down there is something I have tried to instill in the players here as well.

"I have been here for two-and-a-half years now and, with one or two additions, it is the same group of players who won promotion from League Two.

"It was a similar situation at Brighton. As individuals we are not the best team in the League but the League table proves at the moment that we are the best team."

Crosby and his Albion colleagues had Bobby Zamora providing the cutting edge up front, Scunthorpe have 25-goal Billy Sharp.

"It is very similar in that Bobby was also an outstandsing goalscorer and every successful team needs one of those," Crosby said.

"Billy is a totally different type of player to Bobby. though. He's a box player. Give him half a chance and he will finish. He can score with either foot and he lives for scoring goals, even in training.

"When he doesn't score he is a moody little g** but thankfully he has scored goals consistently."

It was a big decision for Crosby to move south when he joined Albion from Chester for £10,000 to become part of the Adams revolution in July 1999.

The Yorkshireman's career had been spent exclusively in the north up to that point, with Leeds, Doncaster and Darlington.

Not only that, it also meant uprooting his family. Wife Lorraine is a Liverpudlian and their first daughter, Emily, was only ten months old at the time.

"It was a big move but one I have never regretted," he said. "I wouldn't change anything. I wish it had lasted longer but I wanted to play and that was the reason I ended up leaving."

Crosby, playing alongside Danny Cullip, had been a regular part of Adams' title winners but the writing was on the wall for him the following season before Peter Taylor took over, following the signings of Matthew Wicks and then Simon Morgan.

After five League goals and 85 appearances in all competitions for an Albion side bound for consecutive championships under Taylor, Crosby, at the age of 28, moved to Oxford.

His career was going nowhere until he joined Scunthorpe on a free transfer in June 2004. They had survived relegation from the Football League by one place, quite a contrast to where they are now and to the plight of his home town club, Rotherham.

Crosby, 34 earlier this month, is not just a player at Glanford Park. Together with team-mate Ian Baraclough he assists the manager Nigel Adkins, who was the physio until Brian Laws left for Sheffield Wednesday in November.

"It's a great insight for myself and Ian," Crosby said. "It is great that we are getting to see the other side of things as well.

"When Brian went we were third in the League after a terrible start. We are on a great run of form at the moment, 15 unbeaten. We are so close and yet so far away still."

Crosby has never played at Championship level. "That goes for the majority of the players in our dressing room," he said. "There won't be many.

"It was the same for the Brighton team that went up again the season I left. Most of them were in the League Two team that won the title.

"Brighton is a much bigger club than Scunthorpe with a much bigger fan base. It would be a massive achievement for us to get to the Championship when you look at the other teams up there with us at the moment, Forest and Bristol City."

Crosby will notice some changes on Saturday. The dressing rooms are at the opposite end of the ground for a start and much smarter than they were when he was an Albion player.

There will be the odd familiar face. Michel Kuipers played in goal and Dean Hammond was an unused sub when Crosby, now a father of two daughters, made his last appearance at Withdean, against Wycombe Wanderers in October 2001.

He is also still in regular contact with the club's sales manager and former team-mate Paul Rogers.

Albion had a formidable home record in those days but Withdean is no longer the fortress it once was and Scunthorpe are eager to avenge a rare home defeat by the Seagulls in October.

"We've only lost two home games all season," Crosby said. "The other one was against Blackpool back in December, so it does rankle.

"No team has taken six points off us this season. We have a gap over Forest in third at the moment but we cannot afford to let that close and we will be coming to win, not to get a draw.

"If we are not full of confidence now then we are never going to be."

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