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Were these Albion's top five centre-forwards so far at the Amex?

On the basis that Joao Pedro is not an out-and-out No.9 (someone tell Chelsea), how about this as a top five of Albion centre-forwards since 2011?

Two players have each finished as top-scorer three times since the club made the big move to Falmer.

But only one of them makes this top five.

That, obviously, is Glenn Murray. Leading marksman in each of their last two promotion seasons (one of which was at Withdean), including the year they went up to the Premier League with 23 goals in all competitions.

He then got 14 and 15 in the first two Prem campaigns and is an easy choice.

Favourite goals at the Amex? The “calm down, calm down” finish and celebration at home to Blackburn in the 2016-17 promotion run-in is worth a mention after he poked the only goal of the game past Jason Steele when the crowd were getting anxious.

There was also his 100th goal for the club when he reacted sharply to divert home a ball driven in by Bruno against Wolves.

Not forgetting his hat-trick in the 5-0 win over Norwich City.

Neal Maupay has also been top-scorer three times but he does make our top five.

Another obvious choice is the club’s all-time top Prem scorer Danny Welbeck, an inspired free agent signing five years ago who now has 33 top-tier goals to his name for the club and a lot of intangibles as well.

Leo Ulloa had two stints at the club in the Amex era but the best was by far the first, in which he top-scored with 16 goals in the 2013-14 play-off season.

Ulloa made a stunning debut by scoring against Arsenal in the FA Cup and came up with a treble against Huddersfield.

No arguments so far, surely, but this might be a controversial choice. Albion’s top scorer in their first Amex season was Ashley Barnes on 14 and he is a player who is judged more kindly in history than at the time.

Barnes was used at times as a wide-of-centre No.9 with defensive responsibility and did a great job.

How different would his and Albion’s history been had he scored rather than hit the bar after going on as sub in the play-off semi-final at home to Crystal Palace?

Talking of near misses, Tomer Hemed led the goal charts in 2015-16 when the Seagulls were so close to going up.

His 16 goals helped Chris Hughton’s men go agonisingly close to the Prem – but he also helped them get there in the end and scored the winner at home to Newcastle early in the season.

Albion would love someone do that last bit today.

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