Albion manager Chris Hughton, as a fully qualified lift engineer, knows better than most that what comes down must come back up.

That has certainly been the case for Shane Duffy, the Irish rock at the heart of his defence alongside Lewis Dunk.

Duffy goes back on Saturday to Everton, the club that nurtured him.

They loaned him out to Scunthorpe in League One and Yeovil in the Championship.

Duffy, thriving with Albion back in the Premier League, believes it was of huge benefit to his career.

He has urged the Seagulls' under-23s prospects and any young player not to be spooked by taking the same route, given the chance.

Duffy (below centre) said: "I'd just say 'Go and play', down the road at Crawley or whatever.

The Argus: "It It doesn't mean you are going to be there forever. Just go and learn how to play football. It's great, under-23s football, when you are a kid and going well, but it's not real first team football.

"I've said to a few of the Irish lads I'm close to here just go and play and you'll benefit from that I think.

"Ben White did it last year and has come back a better player. I would never turn it down. It might not be the most glamorous club you go to but it's real football and it's what you have to work for and work your way back to where you want to get to.

"I sort of thought to myself when I was at Scunthorpe and Yeovil, 'Do you want to spend your career at these clubs, no disrespect to them, but where do you want to be? You've come to Everton, a big club. Well I just want to be there'.

"It makes you realise how much you have to work to be at a big club. That's the mentality I took from the loan moves."

Players always have turning points in their career, moments good or bad which impact on their subsequent path. Duffy could have ended up in another country instead of dropping two divisions to join Scunthorpe.

The Argus: He revealed: "The day before I was going to Kilmarnock. The manager (David Moyes, above) wanted to send me to Scotland but it was a six-month loan.

"Scunthorpe rang the day I was going and suggested a month by month loan. If it didn't work out at Scunthorpe I could always go back to Everton, if it didn't work out at Kilmarnock I'd have been stuck there for six months.

"I just wanted to go and play games. I was fed up with reserve games. I needed to play first team games.

"In the end you could say it was a risk but it was one of the best things I ever did.

"Going there at that stage in League One I was up against big, horrible strikers and I was learning. I got that feeling of what three points meant.

"It was great and after 16 games I got called back. The week before I was playing against Hartlepool away and then I was playing Spurs away for Everton.

"It was weird. I was ready to step in because I'd played first team games. They might not have been good enough but they might not have recalled me. So it worked out perfectly for me.

"It was the same at Yeovil. When I went there it was like 'Why are you going to Yeovil in the Championship?' It was because the manager wanted me to go and play every game.

"I could have gone to a few other clubs in the Championship where you might be third choice and might not play. I loved it, just got better from there, went to Blackburn and I feel like I'm improving every year."

Duffy was handed his debut by Moyes at Everton as a 17-year-old in the Europa League and went on to make a handful of appearances for them in the Premier League.

He returns to Goodison Park for the 199th league start of a career which has progressed for club and country.

The Argus: Liam Brady (above), the former Albion manager and Republic of Ireland legend, told the Argus earlier this month after Duffy broke the club international appearances record that Everton might regret letting him go.

"That's a statement from Liam Brady," Duffy said. "It's nice to hear.

"I owe a lot to Everton. I'll always be thankful for what they did for me.

"I know at the time I wasn't ready to play there and I wasn't good enough to play there.

"I had to step down and improve. I knew I was never going to break in there, coming through, It was quite difficult, the change in manager (Roberto Martinez) and spending power of the new owners and stuff.

"I knew I had to leave. It was a good decision in the end, because I think if I had stayed there I would probably have been fourth choice centre-back, a cup game here and there. I probably would have just faded away.

"But it's always nice to get someone like him (Brady) speaking like that. I have improved over the last three or four years since I left there.

"I'm just delighted I'm here. I'm happy and feel at home here. That's the important thing for me."