Chris Hughton spent 27 years at Spurs as a player and part of the coaching staff.

The Tottenham legend still has season tickets for the new stadium he will step into for the first time.

But there will be no mixed emotions for the occupant of the opposition's technical area.

The Argus: All that matters for Hughton is that Albion pull off a surprise to aid their battle to avoid relegation.

The Seagulls supremo said: "There will certainly no no mixed emotions from me. Everybody knows from my background that I will always want Tottenham to do well - and I wish them well this season in the league and Champions League.

"But I'm the manager of Brighton & Hove Albion and the most important thing for me at the moment is to put in a performance that will give us some chance of getting something."

That considerable challenge - Albion's record away to the Premier League's top six is lost all ten with two goals scored and 22 conceded - will not be motivated by remarks by ex-Seagull Martin Keown pinned on the dressing room wall.

Even if Hughton disagrees vehemently with the former Arsenal and England defender's assertion on Match of the Day 2 on Sunday evening that his players had downed tools in the bleak period leading up to Saturday's fighting 0-0 draw at Wolves.

Hughton said; "You can use whatever you want, whatever individuals say or whoever puts you down. But mostly you want it from within the changing room.

"If things are not going well enough or we haven’t been disciplined enough or we feel the team hasn’t worked hard enough, then you hope the levels are assessed in the changing room - and the changing room deals with it.

"As regards criticism, it comes as part of the game. We have probably gone for long periods in the season without that type of criticism. So, people are always entitled to their opinion. But the most important facts are what we do to address.

"They would be the biggest things I think about as opposed to pinning something up in the changing room."

On Saturday at Molineux, home supporters greeted the final whistle with chants of boring, boring directed at Albion as their misfiring side reached 47 shots without scoring across the two clashes against the Seagulls.

The Argus: Hughton said: "All these little things are factors. The players will be aware of criticism. Probably not all of it because some will shield themselves from it - some will go on Twitter and some won't. So, any little things you can use is good.

"What I certainly saw on Saturday, even though some aspects of our game weren't as good as we would like in terms of creating goals, was a performance from a team that shows they are desperate to stay in this division."

That enabled Hughton to reflect with satisfaction on the journey home and Sunday with the family rather than preoccupation with Cardiff's game against Liverpool.

"Yes," he said. "Because the bits about quality and somebody pulling something out of nothing to score a screamer, they are the bits that can happen.

"But the bits you want to govern the most are what the players are prepared to put into the game. A work ethic which means stopping a very, very good Wolves team, who have had a brilliant season, scoring the goals that generally they score.

"On the day they were the most important things to me - the reaction we got from the players after some poor results."

Those poor results began after the late FA Cup quarter-final comeback at Millwall, which prevented Albion from becoming the first instead of fourth to visit Tottenham's new 62,000-seater and luxuriously appointed home.

The point at Wolves ended a sequence since then of five straight defeats in all competitions but not a goal famine now standing at nine hours.

Hughton told The Argus: "There would have been a period earlier in the season where we picked up results without playing so well, then went through a period where we changed the shape a little bit. Certainly our performances were better, with mixed results, so you are analysing all the time.

"We have a group of players that over a season have worked very hard. We have found it difficult to get the goals that we need and if I am looking at the contributions generally in that area that Gross and Izquierdo would have, we haven't had them for periods.

"There are always ways and always things you can analyse on why things haven't gone so well.

"I mostly put it down to it's a very difficult league and, for a club like ours, to sustain something for long periods is very difficult.

"Probably in this period when we haven't played as well, we haven't coped with it as well as we needed to."

The Argus: They will need to against Spurs, without the injured Harry Kane but still with an array of attacking talent for Mauricio Pochettino (above) that Hughton can only dream about.

It is important for Tottenham too in the top four race as they embark on six matches in 19 days, including both legs of the Champions League semi-final against Ajax.

Albion will be playing catch-up on Cardiff again in games terms afterwards. They kick-off later at home to Newcastle on Saturday when the Welshmen are at Fulham, a day later the following weekend at Arsenal after Neil Warnock's side host Crystal Palace.

Equilibrium is only restored on the final day against the Manchester clubs, Albion at home to City, Cardiff away to a faltering United, as both the title and relegation tussles threaten to go to the wire.

Hughton said: "It is what it is. For as many people that will tell you it's an advantage (playing later), as many will tell you it's a disadvantage.

"You are used to in a season in this division playing Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and you have to be able to adapt and cope with it."