Nicky Forster has no regrets about missing out on the huge wages now on offer in the Premier League.

Forster played at Championship level for Birmingham, Reading, Ipswich and Hull before joining Albion last summer.

He has never quite made it to the top flight, although the Seagulls' skipper and attacking spearhead once passed up the chance.

Forster, 34, said: "I am not someone who has big regrets. I think things happen for a reason.

"I had a choice before I went to Ipswich of joining a Premier League club but I just felt I would have been more of a squad player so I turned that opportunity down.

"I don't regret that and I don't regret any of my career. I've had a fantastic time and I am enjoying it now as much as I ever have.

"I don't begrudge anyone the money. I sometimes look at players on huge salaries and think I was as good as them but it is a short career so good luck to them."

Forster is content with his lot, leading Albion as they try to work their way back into the promotion picture.

He knows what is required, having gone up from League One with Reading as runners-up to the Seagulls six years ago, so are the current crop good enough to make the play-offs?

Forster added: "I think that is a difficult question to answer. I know I am sitting on the fence a bit but I'm not sure how strong the league is.

"I am unconvinced. There are a couple of good teams, Swansea obviously being the ones we are all chasing, but a lot of teams are beating everyone else in and around the pack.

"It is all about finding consistency and winning games. There are periods in a season when you have got to grind out results and it is a period now when we have got to do it.

"Within this division this year there are no tiers like there are in the Premier League. Swansea and Forest are very good teams, the rest are jostling for places and that consistency.

"When you get into a habit of winning that feelgood factor comes along and you ride the crest of a wave.

"We were doing that just running up to Christmas. Perhaps with personnel changes or the Christmas run we just dropped off that slightly but we have games in hand and we are in a comfortable position if we can gain maximum points from those games."

Much will depend on Forster's embryonic partnership with Glenn Murray.

The goals have dried up for him since the Christmas departure of former Reading team-mate Bas Savage but Forster is confident he can flourish again with Albion's £300,000 buy from Rochdale.

He said: "I enjoyed playing with Bas and he was a good foil for me, although he perhaps didn't get the tally of goals himself.

"He did a lot of work creating things for me and especially defensively, which allowed me to be selfish and stay up front.

"But I think we have got a very capable replacement in Glenn Murray. I think it is a relationship that can form.

"I put him in a couple of times against Cheltenham on Tuesday and he should have scored and he put me in and I should have scored, so there are signs that we can link up and create goals for each other like myself and Bas did."