Dean Wilkins today revealed how he plans to give Albion a pre-season head start on their rivals.

The Seagulls boss is preparing for his first pre-season in overall charge of team affairs, having replaced Mark McGhee last September.

But he revealed his training ideas have already been put into practice by a predecessor.

Now he is confident he can get the best out of his side during a key phase of the footballing calendar.

Albion get back to work on July 2 but Wilkins already knows how he will get the best out of training and the array of friendlies he has at his disposal.

He revealed Micky Adams handed over responsibility for pre-season to him one year during his tenure at Withdean.

And he can guarantee his players one thing. Pre-season will be fun. Or at least as much fun as it possibly can be.

Willkins said: "I have my own ideas and I like to work with the players in an enjoyable way.

"Of course it is hard graft but you can still make it varied and interesting for the players.

"The year I was asked to organise it for Micky the players enjoyed it and we got off to a good start to the season.

"A lot of work will be done with the ball, not without it.I want players to get as many touches of the ball as they possibly can.

"We also tend to make the groups as small as we can and work in rotation.

"We'll do a certain practice for a few minutes, then move on. It keeps the attention span high.

"It's hard work. It has to be. It's normally scorching hot in pre-season which makes it even harder but we will try to make it enjoyable."

Albion's pre-season friendly schedule looks to be the best for several years, including, for the first time in the Withdean era, two home games against top-flight opposition.

Fulham come to Withdean on Friday, July 20 and Reading visit eight days later in Kerry Mayo's testimonal.

The trip to Chester on August 4, just a week before the season-opener, looks a strange fixture to arrange.

But Wilkins insists he has his reasons.

He said: "I wanted to get an away game in, with an overnight stay, before the first game of the season.

"We are clearly going to have a lot of trips north next season with overnight stays.

"We've negotiated with Chester and it is not a trip that will be expensive for us.

"Every decision we make we have to consider costs. That was considered before we finished the agreement.

"I have inherited certain situations "We have certain agreements in place to visit clubs from whom we have signed players and I have respected those but we also need a good test in pre-season.

"Fulham wanted to play a League One side on that date, so we took that.

"I think we have got quite a good pre-season as it stands."