David Burke, former head of recruitment, paid the price for some poor signings in the immediate aftermath of Sami Hyypia's ill-fated reign as Albion manager.

Signings such as Nzuzi Toko and Chris O'Grady. It was a bleak period as the Seagulls threatened to fall back into League One, but it was not all bad.

A few months earlier, under Oscar Garcia, Dale Stephens was signed from Charlton midway through another near-miss in the Championship play-offs on the advice of the Spaniard's assistant, ex-Albion defender Nathan Jones (below).

The Argus: Stephens has become the great survivor, a reassuring presence in the centre of midfield.

He has found a way through the turbulence and impatience to reach the Premier League, which attracted persistent interest from Burnley and resulted in a transfer request.

At Everton today, Stephens makes the 300th league start of a career in which he has played in all four divisions and non-League, from Bury, Droylsden, Oldham and Rochdale to Charlton, Southampton and Albion.

Almost half of those starts for the 29-year-old Lancastrian have been for the Seagulls (today will be his 145th).

Stephens said: "I think it was Nathan Jones who put his neck on the line for me.

"To come through and stay at this club after it has gone through a transitional period when we didn't do so well the following year, to be a survivor of a big turnaround of players, to be part of the club that has grown so much in four or five years is something I'm very proud of. I am looking to carry on doing that in the future."

Albion's recruitment record has improved dramatically since Paul Winstanley succeeded Burke. Stephens now faces stronger competition than ever before in his area of expertise.

Predictably, they lost at Manchester City without him, but they beat West Ham in the first of three clean sheet wins with Beram Kayal and Davy Propper while he recovered from hamstring trouble.

Since then Stephens has been back in tandem with Kayal as Propper nurses ankle damage. Summer signing Yves Bissouma (below) is pushing all three of them.

The Argus: "It's a sign of the recruitment we've got at the club now," Stephens said. "It's a good job it is like that, because if someone gets injured we've not really come too far away from previous performances.

"I think that's a positive. It brings out the best of you. We've seen a lot of good football from Beram since Biss has come in.

"It's the same for myself and Davy, you want that competition, to play in an environment where you are going to get pushed and play better."

Stephens is as realistic as his manager. Chris Hughton remarked after the hat-trick clinching win over Wolves at the Amex that Albion must improve attacking-wise.

"When we walked off the pitch at the weekend we knew we were fortunate," Stephens admitted. "I don't think we deserved to not win the game, but the amount of blocks, headers and the saves Maty had to make, the two centre-halves in particular, you don't want to put them under so much pressure like that.

"I don't think we played well enough really to go on and win the game 2-0 or 3-0. Ideally you'd like to have more of the ball and become more of a threat. It takes a lot of pressure off the back four."

Albion head to Everton with renewed hope of springing a surprise after ending 11 months without an away victory at Newcastle.

The Argus: Stephens (above left) said: "You don't want to go so long without winning away, but we've played decent teams this year away from home already and had decent performances.

"You look back at the Liverpool game - I didn't play at Man City - you know what they can do to teams.

"We want to build on what we can do at the Amex. That will be a massive part of our year, but we have shown that we can play well and win away from home now."

Stephens' sequence of 46 consecutive league appearances and not a minute missed in the Premier League ended when injury ruled him out of the 2-0 defeat at Everton in March.

His influence is transparent, topping Albion's passing list this season with 330, despite missing two matches.

He is not resting on his laurels as he prepares for his landmark appearance at Goodison Park.

"I've not played there," he said. "I've played at a few grounds now as well. It's one of those clubs you look at, traditional stadium, old school stadium, but a top club in this division.

"I'm looking forward to playing there. I know how tough it is just watching the games that are played at Goodison Park. Not a lot of teams go there and pick up a lot of points.

"It's strange, because you don't really look back and reflect.

"I think maybe one day when I'm retired I'll look back and think I did alright, but I don't think now is the time for reflection. We're into a tough season.

"We've done well of late, but we are looking forward to a tough challenge."