Graham Potter knew it was not going to be an upward curve with Albion

The Albion head coach has spent most of his management career on the rise.

He took Ostersunds from the fourth division of Swedish football to fifth in the top tier and also to the round of 32 in the Europa League in the space of eight years.

Potter then moved on to managing Swansea in the Championship last season and guided them to tenth in the league and to the quarter finals of the FA Cup, only to be knocked by the eventual winners Manchester City.

The 44-year-old joined Albion in the summer and despite getting off to a good start to the job, it has been a rather tricky season for them.

Albion are currently one point above the relegation zone, but Potter was aware it was not always going to be plain sailing.

He said: “Well, I’m 44 years old, I’ve got three kids, I’ve educated myself, I have been in football a long time and I know life isn’t one steady upward curve. That’s not what it is, that is not how you get to these points.

“There are always setbacks. You have to deal with suffering, you have to deal with failure, you have to deal with mistakes.

“Believe you me, I have had those through my career, throughout my life. It is about how you respond to them is the most important thing to me.”

Albion now head into a tough run of fixtures, where they take four sides in the top ten the first of which is Wolves.

The Seagulls opponents are sixth in the Premier League just three points off the top four and are into the last 16 of the Europa League and Potter says they are having a fabulous season.

He said: “I think they have done amazing.

“Full credit has to go to Nuno his success of promotion and then stabilising in the Premier League, plus the European run they are on to still maintain a level is very impressive.

“They have some really good players, are really well organised and they are a top team competing for a Champions League place really alongside what they are doing in the Europa League, so they had an amazing season.”

One thing that has got many people talking in football is the Eric Dier incident in Spurs’ FA Cup defeat on penalties to Norwich on Wednesday.

After the game the 26-year-old midfielder climbed into the stands to confront a fan, who had abused his younger brother Patrick during the game who was sat nearby.

Dier went up to confront the supporter and protect his brother as he was restrained by stewards.

Potter, who had a similar situation during his playing career could understand why Dier did it, but feels he needs to rise above.

He said: “You can’t do it, that’s the reality unfortunately. Supporters pay their money and they can say what they want, or it seems that way.

“Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s another debate - but that’s the society we live in.

“As professionals you have to manage your emotions and understand that there’s going to be feedback and criticism.

“You have to rise above it.

“It’s happened to me that supporters abused my brother in the past, so I know how it feels. It’s not nice.

“Just because we’re footballers or managers doesn’t mean you don’t care.

He added: “Supporters don’t have a monopoly on emotion and passion. We have it too, especially when it comes to a family member. You can understand how things get triggered but you have to be above it.

“That’s the job, that’s the challenge.

“There’s all sorts of noise working against you and you have to try and rise above it.

“We can all understand that there’s emotion and that there’s a trigger.

“But we are professionals and we have to turn another cheek.

“The incident with my younger brother happened 20 years ago, so I’m not saying society has deteriorated. It’s always been there

“I don’t know if we can educate fans - they get emotional, they get angry and say things that maybe they don’t really want to say.

“I can understand that. It’s not nice as a person to hear, but it happens.

“When you’ve lost and you’re not playing well there’s going to be criticism, you have to accept that.

“Then it’s about how you deal with it. That’s the challenge”