Jan Paul van Hecke believes Albion have shown they can open teams up with their attractive passing.

And he was pleased with his latest defensive effort as the recent good run continued.

The Seagulls have eight points from their last four games after beating Newcastle 2-1 with a Danny Welbeck double.

Toon legend Alan Shearer highlighted on BBC TV's Match Of The Day how Albion passed the ball around their opponents at times.

And that was how van Hecke, who started several such moves from the bench, saw it himself.

He told The Argus: "I think the first 25 minutes was a bit up and down and then I felt like we needed a bit more control so we tried to play around them and then try to open the spaces in the middle.

"And then the (first) goal was from there, but also some other big chances and then you could see that they played a bit different in the second half.

"They are really coming and then you need 2-0.

"We got some big chances in the beginning of the second half, but we didn't really get it and then, there just a really good team.

"They came back but luckily we had Welbeck!"

Van Hecke has enjoyed some good tussles of late, most notably when he kept Joao Pedro quiet at Stamford Bridge.

On this occasion, he was the main marker for German giant Nick Woltemade.

Although Woltemade scored with a clever back heel, van Hecke put up a tremendous battle against him.

The Holland international said: "He's a good player and I was looking forward to playing against him.

"I thought I did really well, but then he did an exceptional goal.

"I didn't even know how he did it but that's top quality and fair play to him.

"But then, after, I was really happy that we scored and we could see everyone threw that bodies on the line.

"Everyone was really happy with the win."

Asked the particular challenges Woltemade posed, van Hecke said: "I think he wants to link the game. I think he does it well

"He is good in the air. He's quite tall and tried to go back post and I thought we did really well.

"We had some really good blocks and I think overall it was a big performance."