Tony Bloom remembers watching Albion at the Goldstone in the top flight when he was a kid.

He was there during their four-year tenure in the old First Division.

He was there when the club reached their highest-ever league position 40 years ago next season.

But Albion’s owner and chairman hopes he is NOT presiding over a golden era now.

He wants it to be something longer-lasting than that.

Bloom revealed recently he believes the current Albion side are playing the best football the club has ever seen.

The memory can play tricks. It can say Albion fans at the time did not appreciate the significance of four years in the top flight.

When they went down in 1983, they thought they would bounce back quickly.

Or maybe it’s the stats which play tricks and those who were there can tell you that, actually, the club’s greatest ever season in terms of league standing was not a bundle of fun to watch.

Either way, Bloom is convinced what we are watching now tops the lot, even if that best-ever league position has remained just out of reach so far.

He told The Argus: “I’ve been watching the Albion for over 40 years.

“I was 11, 12 and we had our highest finishing position in the 1981-82 season.

“I can’t remember how good we were then. I know we had some very good players.

“I remember watching some of the games.

“Obviously back in those days I would have only seen the home games.

“That would be probably the closest to the last couple of seasons.

“But I am very certain that not just the style, but in terms of the style with substance, this season beats that season.

“If I recall, 1981-82 was under Mike Bailey so certainly the style wasn’t so great!

“The substance was good and we got the results.

“But my memory is not so good on detail 40 years ago!”

Memories of those days, including the promotion seasons from Third and Second Divisions, have been the foundation of Albion allegiance for many supporters of a certain age It is what many of that generation, which includes Bloom himself, were brought up on. A Golden Era which for so long was not matched.

As Albion move into a best-ever fifth successive top-tier season, Bloom does not want what we are seeing now to be thought of as Golden Era II in decades to come.

He said: “In a way I hope not because that means, in decades to come, we are still in the Premier League and still having success so they don’t have to hark back like we have done over the last 30 or 40 years to the years from 1979 to 1983.

“Obviously there will always be moments.

“There will be moments like getting promotion, there will be moments like Arsenal at the Amex last season, like Liverpool away and Man City at home this season.

“But hopefully there will be better seasons to come in terms of finishing position which people will focus on even more in years to come.”

Bloom said he was never unduly worried that Albion would go down in season four as happened back in 1983.

Fulham drew level on points in March, albeit having played more games, and would have nudged Albion into the bottom three had they turned a 0-0 half-time scoreline at home to Manchester City into a point at full-time, “Nothing is for sure until you are over the line,” Bloom said.

“I was always very confident we would be outside the bottom three.

“But we were closer to the bottom three than I would have liked us to have been, obviously, like all of our fans, and than we deserved to be.

“I was never overly concerned and the players pulled it off when it mattered and they got the wins towards the end of the season.

“And some very good wins at that.”

Thee are various stats and tables which can be dug out and tell you Albion were better in the second half of the season in terms of securing results.

How you finish one season can be an indicator as to how the next will go.

The fact Albion were 12th in a table comprising result from January 1 looks promising.

Bloom said: “I don’t think it is necessarily just the second half of the season, although we were a little better in the second half of the season than in the first half.

“The first half was very good. I know the November, December results perhaps were poor.

“But I think the whole season, over the course of 38 games, we played really well.

ALBION TO VISIT  BRENTFORD'S NEW STADIUM

“The Arsenal game, the last game of the season, which was understandable after the high of Man City and a long old season, we were certainly below par all game.

“But I can only think of a few halves of football where we were obviously below par. Very few.”

He added: “I can only be optimistic on what I’ve seen, on how we objectively view all the games, for the coming season.”