MK of Seagull Shouts has the keys to the blog this week. He has set out on the challenge of replicating Brighton’s 20 year journey through the football league but if he continues as he has started, it’ll be a much shorter story…

I’m going to reveal a very useful tip to hang on to your star players today, but you’ll have to read on for that…

I’ll be covering two pages of fixtures today, so hold tight! 2 pages of fixtures where the Seagulls suffer only 2 defeats, both in the cup. It’s a run that I can’t quite believe. I’ve played Brighton before in this game, but not with results like this. Admittedly, these are new tactics for me and some new players. I’d like to say I’m some kind of CM god and this always happens, but I’d be lying.

Tomlinson carries on in the same vein that he started the season with the only goal to finish off Port Vale in the second leg of the cup. He then bags back-to-back hat-tricks against Cardiff and Rochdale. He’s a man possessed!

Really happy to see the men behind him chipping in with the goals too, particularly Lakin and Gregory.

Our League Cup run came to an end (even after coming back from behind twice) when we came up against Premier League surprise package Coventry, who were
sitting in second in the league, albeit behind runaway leaders Man Utd. I still get that sad feeling when checking Man Utd’s squad with this being the first season after Cantona’s premature retirement.

Time came to move on Atkinson, who was performing well, but our finances needed a boost and I scouted a replacement available on a free and another I hoped to bring in someone on loan from one of the big boys.

I though £425k was a decent return for a play who I’d inherited with the squad and although performing well, I could replace fairly easily at this stage.

Enter Alan Johnson. Creative, decent with the ball and a strong level of flair. Good off the ball and with it and can play a pass and hit a dead ball. He can play in defence but look at that tackling…

I didn’t get my loan man in until a couple of months later and any regular players of the game will recognise this young lad from Man Utd.

Bids came in for many players and here is where my tip is revealed. If you sign players as a smaller stature club, players will often require a ‘big club release clause’. This means that if they do perform as you want them to, they often get bought from you by bigger clubs against your will.

Now if you sign a player with this clause, you can immediately list them for loan. Do it immediately as if you wait until their value increases then your board will block it. All the time the player is listed for loan, potential suitors will only make offers to loan the player and you can always refuse their advances. This helped me keep my squad together.

I would have lost half of my strongest 11 without this and for far less than the’ll be worth by the end of the season!

As usual if you play Brighton, Peter Smith wants out. NOPE, SORRY MATE!

Would you look at that league table?

Next time we’ll hopefully see a legend arrive at the club and also we’ll bring the season to a close. Will we be sitting pretty at the top or will we bottle it at the last?

You can follow MK on Twitter @SeagullShouts – catch up with Part 1 & Part 2

Catch up as we met Quickly Kevin producer Michael Marden