“It is just a shame that we haven’t done so well of late,” Butters told the North End Matchday programme.

“If we had picked up a few results in them games, I know it sounds strange but you are not that far off the play-offs if you win a few games. We just want to survive really, it’s just about staying in this division but with about eleven games to go it was looking quite healthy. But we have lost four on the trot and it is looking a bit tighter down there.

“I was at Brighton when they went down before but I wasn’t playing at the time. It has been an eventful five years for the club, they have had promotions or relegations every year so it is pretty apt that we are in a relegation struggle.”

The fact that Butters and his team-mates have been dragged into the relegation dogfight probably owes more to the competitiveness of the Championship. Even with just seven games to go it’s almost as if every club has something to play for.

“We have been looking at all the teams and everyone has got to play each other, we have still to go to Rotherham, we have got to play Leicester and Coventry so we know that we have got to play a few of the teams down there, it is in our hands really. As long as we play the way that we know we can fingers crossed it will be alright.

“When it gets down to this period of the season then it is all about winning games, at the start of the season you want to win every game. Sometimes you get managers who more bothered about how well you play whereas now we would take playing absolutely awful as long as we win.”

One of those teams at the bottom who will be battling to stay up along with Brighton is Butters’ former club Gillingham. The centre-half spent just under six years at Priestfield and he will be hoping that he can spark up some of the Gillingham curse tonight.

“I still talk to a few of the Gillingham lads, there was a stage a few games ago where we had a better goal difference then them by about 10, but they have overtaken us on that one so we have got to make sure that we start picking things up.

“We beat Preston in the play-offs one year and we used to do quite well up there. I think I remember only being beaten once when I was at Gillingham. You always knew that it was a difficult place to go and if you got something out of the game you would be pretty relieved, before the game you would take a point if it was offered you.  We used to have some good battles when Sean Gregan was there and all them lot.”

With the Brighton team making the long journey up for a night match, Butters knows that a good result is important so that they don’t have to endure what would be a very quiet and long journey home should things go wrong. He’s hoping for a repeat of what happened at the Withdean earlier this season.

“You want to get the result because if you lose it is a long journey home, but it will be two away games on the trot and hopefully we can get a few points.

“I remember the game earlier in the season, we played pretty well that day. We knew that you were a good side yourselves and we seem to raise ourselves against the better sides, unfortunately we don’t seem to be able to do it against the lesser sides. It was 1-0 but we know that since then Preston have gone on to better things and that they are looking to get into the play-offs so it is going to be a difficult game.”

Those big results have come at all sorts of places and he has even managed to notch a couple of important goals at Upton Park and Elland Road, the one against the Hammers proved to be the winner and upset a few members of his family.

“My dad is a West Ham fan so he weren’t too happy. We train at a University and I got talking to a few West Ham fans throughout the season, they kept saying that they were going to go and give me some stick, so to actually score, I saw one of them when I was coming off the pitch and it was quite funny.

“It was a good result but we have had a few like that this year, we beat Leicester away and done quite well and we have beaten Sheffield United away so we know that on our day we are capable of giving anyone a good game really.”

The 35-year-old will be hoping that his team-mates have one last good away performance in them to take all three points tonight!