Albion boss Chris Hughton has told his players they are going to have to get used to losing.

He says promotion will require a "completely different mindset" in the Premier League next season.

The Seagulls have won or drawn 77 of their 89 matches in the Championship under Hughton last season, when they just missed out on promotion, and this season when they have made amends with three games to spare.

He has managed in the Premier League twice before, with Newcastle and Norwich, who will tonight try to deny Albion the win they require at Carrow Road to clinch the title.

Hughton told The Argus: "The difference is that you are a team that has got to get used to losing more games than winning.

"That's a completely different mindset to the seasons before. That's absolutely not being negative, that's just fact.

"You only need to speak even to teams like Bournemouth and Burnley that have gone into the Premier League, stayed and done well.

"The way you manage has to change slightly. You have to adapt. It is about picking (players) up, accepting you cannot win the majority of the games like you have done the season before. It's just a different way of managing.

"There aren't as many midweek games, so certainly your preparation times can more often be greater. With all due respect to the Championship, the profile of the games are bigger, so there are lots of things to get used to. But they are all positive things."

Hughton is looking foward to discovering if his players can cope and turn Albion, eventually, into a West Brom or Stoke (below), clubs he regards as a blueprint.

The Argus: He said: "They are the exciting things to find out but it's no different to any team that gets promotion from the Championship to the Premier League.

"They are all the things you have to work around and it is about how you cope with it, adding to the squad, the quality of the team. There are so many factors.

"These are all things in Premiership life you have to get used to and some clubs, the likes of West Brom and Stoke, have had that slow process of getting used to it every year and developing as a team. Now they are both solid fixtures in the Premier League.

"They are the blueprint for us and not just us. Probably the exception in our division would be Newcastle with their Premier League history and the size of the stadium.

"For everybody the blueprint has got to be those type of clubs that have been Championship clubs and are now into their sixth, seventh, eighth year in the Premier League."

Hughton is not concerned by conclusions drawn by some observers from the comparison between his Championship and Premier League records.

He won the title with Newcastle and is on the verge of a repeat with Albion. He has also guided both the Seagulls and Birmingham to the play-offs in the second tier.

At Newcastle he was only given four months in the Premier League. At Norwich his near two-season tenure ended with the Canaries fighting against relegation after steering them to their highest position over the last 24 years.

Hughton said: "People forget that in our first season we finished 11th, which is wonderful for a club of the size of Norwich. I think anybody sitting in my position here would bite your hands off for that.

"There isn't anything that disappoints me. All the efforts I put into my work are for the people that have employed me. I've been in a lot more fortunate positions than others. I've generally worked. I had a couple of short spells out after Newcastle and Norwich.

"But I've been fortunate enough to have worked for a long period of time and in our industry there are an awful lot of managers for whom that hasn't been the case.

"I generally don't worry about any perceptions or what people think. All I worry about is doing the best job I can."

That will include a more flexible approach to the way Albion set up in the Premier League after so much success playing primarily in the Championship with two strikers and two attack-minded wingers.

"It's something you look at," Hughton said. "You have possibly got to have more flexibility in the Premier League, because of the quality of the teams you are up against.

The Argus: "I have enjoyed playing two up top. Not only that but at times with two wingers - not always a (Jiri) Skalak (above) who is probably more of a midfield player, even though he is a wonderful crosser.

"Certainly, if you are playing Anthony (Knockaert) and Solly (March) or Jamie Murphy, you are not only playing two up top, you are also playing two wingers.

"That will be more difficult in the Premier League, because of the quality and the amount of teams that will flood midfield, so they are things we will have to assess."