Lewis Dunk has set his sights on making history with Albion in their first League game at The Amex.

The impressive young defender has targeted a starting role when Doncaster visit for the first competitive fixture in the Seagulls’ new home.

But he is also hoping the younger generation get their chance to shine when the gates open for the first time two weeks on Saturday.

Albion Reserves play Eastbourne Borough in the Sussex Senior Cup final on July 16.

Dunk is competing for a senior starting spot with Albion potentially short of numbers at the back.

Tommy Elphick (Achilles) is certain to miss the start of the season and Adam El-Abd is still recovering from a stress fracture in his foot.

Brighton-born Dunk accepts boss Gus Poyet will sign a new defender but said: “There is always competition.

“I’m excited about the new season. It would be good experience to play in the Senior Cup, because it’s the first game ever at the stadium, but my main priority is to play in the first league game of the season.

“The young players got the club to the final. It would be good if they got the chance to play in it.”

He added: “I looked at the fixtures when they came out and there are no bad games there.

“There are some good teams in the division. West Ham will be big games, so will Palace.”

Dunk has sympathy for El-Abd and Elphick as they battle to be fit.

He spent much of last summer battling back from injury.

The 19-year-old said: “It wasn’t a long term injury but I’d done most of the running and was just getting on to ball work.

“Then I broke my foot. It was so frustrating.

“Last year was my first senior pre-season but I missed a lot of it because I was injured just before they went to Portugal. Hopefully this will be my first full pre-season.”

Albion beat the weather on their first day of serious training yesterday, having just completed their work outdoors when a hefty thunder storm rumbled overhead.

They have also beaten a taxing workload over Easter after a double request from Poyet paid off.

The boss had asked for the Easter Saturday game at Burnley to be moved forward and the Easter Monday clash with Reading to be moved back in the hope of avoiding a scenario of two games in three days.

Reading’s visit to The Amex had already been pushed back a day to Tuesday, April 10.

Now the Burnley trip has been moved to Good Friday (3pm).

Poyet said: “I made two requests for Easter hoping to get one from two but they said yes to both, which is good because playing Saturday and Monday isn’t right.”

Albion will visit Cardiff on Wednesday, August 17 (7.45pm), which is 24 hours later than originally scheduled. Dates for games against Leeds and Barnsley had already been altered. Leeds come south on September 23 and Barnsley visit The Amex on November 6.