Luke Chambers hopes Town's anxiety to avoid a repeat of last season’s home defeat to Brighton will help extend an impressive home record under boss Mick McCarthy.

Since the ex-Wolves, Sunderland and Republic of Ireland manager took charge in November last year he has seen his team lose just four of their 20 home league games.

Town have banked 42 of the 60 available points thanks to 13 wins and three draws and Chambers said: “I think we’ve made our ground a bit of a fortress and that was one of the main things the gaffer instilled in us when he came here.

“It has to be a difficult place for teams to come. It’s a long way from other places — that’s no secret — and we don’t want teams coming here for an easy game. We’re certainly not making it easy for anyone.”

Chambers feels Town have a score to settle with the Seagulls after they won 3-0 at Portman Road on New Year’s Day and added: “Gus Poyet did a great job there and transformed them into a very good team.

“I haven’t seen too much of them this season but I would imagine they will be along the same lines under new manager Oscar Garcia.

“They came here and beat us 3-0 last season — we weren’t at our best that day but I still don’t think it was a 3-0 game.

"We’ll have that in the back of our minds and we’ll want to put that right. We should have beaten them down at their place but we were caught out by a late equaliser and it ended 1-1.

“It’s a game we are really looking forward to. We’re enjoying playing at home. The fans have been absolutely fantastic. All of a sudden someone’s brought a drum along and we can hear it when we’re playing.

"The atmosphere has been fantastic the last few games and long may that continue.”

Photo: Action Images

Stourbridgeblue added 09:51 - Sep 28 Well I suppose we've got to keep the drum now!
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SouperJim added 10:28 - Sep 28 We've had the drum for ages, it just seems that recently someone has worked out how to hit the thing in time with the crowd. Fingers crossed for the return of the blue scooter today!
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FriskinPriskin1 added 12:04 - Sep 28 Luke - New Year's Day was definitely a 3-0. They were miles better that day.
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