Lewis Dunk won me over - and I recommended him to Prem clubs

He saw him play a couple of games for Albion under-18s and thought he was dreadful.

The Seagulls’ former youth team boss was soon put right by colleagues Martin Hinshelwood and Vic Bragg.

As a former Premier League defender with Charlton Athletic, he believes he was able to pass on key information which has left Dunk on the brink of an England cap against the USA.

If the Albion No.5 gets on tonight, Brown will see it as the final piece in a ten-year jigsaw.

Brown arrived as under-18s boss when Dunk was first emerging.

He said: “Hinsh and Vic were telling me about Lewis as one they thought had a really good chance.

Steve Brown, left, and Martin Hinshelwood

“The first couple of games I saw, Lewis was dreadful. I told Hinsh I wasn’t sure about him but Hinsh said he had just come back from injury and to give him a bit of time.

“He got fitter and fitter and I remember telling Hinsh ‘This boy will play for your first team’.

“Different pieces of the jigsaw came along during a player’s career.

“I played centre-half at a high level and was able to give him information from my own experiences.

“They were messages I had received and understood and passed on to Lewis and Grant Hall, who we also had at the time and has gone on to do very well.

“Lewis still had to take those messages on board and grow.

“The biggest thing for me is how a player reacts when he gets into that first team environment because it’s very much sink or swim.

“You can push them and hope the penny drops but a lot of it is down to the mentality of the individual. He has absolutely the right mentality. 

“The next part of the jigsaw is that he went into a team and a club in the ascendancy.

“There was a goal at the club, a vision. There was a chairman who wanted to grow the club.

“The new stadium was in place and Gus (Poyet) came in as manager.

“Lewis got his debut in a team that was progressing.

“He had the raw materials for a centre-half. He was tall, physical, a very good ball player.

“We know that, over the last five or ten years, what is expected of a centre-half has changed. But Lewis can do the lot.

"It’s no surprise he has gone on to have a good career.

“But, if people tell you that, back then, they knew he was going to play for England – as hopefully he will tonight – I think they are pulling your leg.

“It was a case of right place, right time. He came into a club that was progressing really well and he was part of that.”

The messages Brown, pictured, passed on out on that old training pitch in Falmer went back to his own playing days.

“I had to work as hard as I possibly could to have the career I had.

“What gave me my career was understanding my role as a centre-half.

“One thing I passed on was about defending your penalty box.

“Passing and playing out are good but your foundation is you defend your penalty box. Your penalty box is your castle.

“We worked on individual stuff, about understanding the movements of a centre-forward.

“Understand what he is trying to do and how to combat it.

“The partnership at the back is crucial. They have got a wonderful partnership there in Lewis and Shane Duffy.

“You pass on little things like nudging people at the right time so they are just off balance as the ball comes in.

“Defending the spaces the centre-forward is trying to work himself into. Work with your keeper to get angles right.”

All of which, at the time, was aimed to bringing Dunk into a League One side. And then a Championship side.

Brown, who later moved into scouting, sees Dunk’s adjustment to Premier League life as “the sign of a player with footballing intelligence.”

He revealed there used to be concerns around the talent-spotting network that Dunk could make costly errors.

“I had phone calls about him when he was in the Championship and I would recommend him. They would always come back at me with the same thing.

“But I’d tell them there’s no centre-half that doesn’t make the odd mistake or doesn’t get caught out. For me, his qualities were well worth taking a gamble on.

“I knew the quality and, with the question marks over mistakes, I just batted them away.

“One or two were willing to take the gamble. I’m convinced Brighton had good bids which they knocked back.

“That’s fantastic to be in a position to be able to do that.”

That Albion youth coaching team can take some credit for the England player Dunk has very nearly become.

Brown said: “We take a certain amount of credit but no one’s career is defined by one coach or one manager.

“You have to have everything – good parents, a good agent who doesn’t turn your head every time someone calls offering an extra £100 a week, or an extra ten grand a week these days!

“All these things have to align.

“Lewis has made the most of everybody he has come across.

“He now has a wonderful opportunity to win that England cap.”