Ask any Albion supporter to name their favourite players and, for most, Tomer Hemed is unlikely to figure very high on the list.

Pose the same question to Chris Hughton and his squad and you would get a different answer.

Every team needs artisans as well as artists, those whose contribution is appreciated more in the dressing room than in the stands.

For strikers like Hemed, the judgment from the seats tends to be confined to a single currency - goals.

The alternative judgment shouts out how much faith the manager has in his quietly spoken Israeli.

Hemed has been involved in 28 of Albion's 29 Championship matches this season, starting 26 of them.

The only game he missed, in September away to this Saturday's visitors Bolton Wanderers, was due to injury.

If goals alone counted, Hemed would have been ditched by Hughton long ago.

His Sheareresque header in Friday evening's 3-0 victory over Brentford at the Amex was only his seventh in total and first for two months.

Hughton continues to pick him for other attributes - workrate, link-up play, runs which create room for others.

The player alongside him in the goal chart, and sometimes in the attack, can empathise.

Bobby Zamora spoke in glowing terms about Hemed's often overlooked role in the build-up to the Brentford game. He knows how it feels, because he has been there.

Zamora, because of his exploits at the club, is regarded by Albion fans as a goalscorer.

And yet, at the peak of his powers, he was not. In the four years he spent in the Premier League with Fulham, when he earned an England call-up, Zamora was a low-scoring target man.

He averaged one goal every four games on the banks of the River Thames.

That is the ball-park career ratio of Hemed, who is unquestionably a less natural finisher.

He has never been prolific. Hemed's best-ever season for league goals is 13 for Maccabi Haifa in 2010-11.

In La Liga in Spain, for Almeria and Mallorca, he accumulated 29 goals in 125 appearances, never more than 11 in a single season.

The context is important in assessing whether Hemed is providing value for money in his first season in England.

The conclusion has to be positive. He cost Albion £1.5 million, loose change for a front man these days.

If you want 20 goals a season you buy Jordan Rhodes, as Middlesbrough just have, for £9 million.

Supporters must have been thinking Albion had unearthed another Almerian jewell when Hemed, uncharacteristically, weighed in with five goals in his opening nine games for the club, a late penalty winner at Fulham, two at Ipswich, two more against Hull and Rotherham.

Coming from the same club as Leonardo Ulloa strengthened the expectation but Hemed then reverted to type.

The goal against Rotherham was in mid-September. It was early December before he struck again, as a substitute at home to Charlton.

The reality is Hemed has so far done as much as could reasonably have been expected of him.

He said: "In the games when I've not been scoring I've had good feedback from the staff, from the players. They know how much I work and help the team to win.

"Sometimes it's not with goals, it's with other things. If we win and I am part of it I'm happy but in the end I need to score goals. This is my job, this is why I am here.

"When you don't score goals it's not easy. When I don't score they still appreciate my work, when I scored they said I deserved it. They know how hard I work in training and in the games."

There is another reason to cut Hemed - who lacks the physical stature of Ulloa - some slack. The adjustment from La Liga to the Championship.

"It's my first season here and there is a big difference to Spain," he said. "The style of the game is more aggressive, more intense.

"The defenders look first for your body and then for the ball. In Spain it's not the same mentality of defending.

"I knew the first season would not be easy for me but still I think I can be happy with what I have done up to now.

"I'm happy that I have an important part in the team and I will keep trying to help until the end of the season, scoring as many goals as I can. We all have the same target, to finish in the top two and if not the play-offs."

Hemed will continue to play a key part in the promotion push, particularly if Albion are unable to add to their strike force during the emergency loan window which opens tomorrow.

Hughton has no idea, from game to game, how many minutes he will get out of Zamora, who looked weary against Brentford and was substituted at half-time.

Hemed's goal was set up by Beram Kayal after Anthony Knockaert became the 11th different player to score in the league for the Seagulls.

Hemed has a telepathic understanding with former Celtic midfielder and fellow countryman Kayal. They started out together in Maccabi Haifa's youth team and have been reunited by Albion.

They are the closest of friends, a bond unaffected by contrasting faiths. Kayal is an Israeli Arab who reads the Qur'an, Hemed a Jew whose idea of a Friday night out is a trip to the synagogue.

They even share the same birthday (May 2). Hemed, at 28, is a year older.

Hemed said of his goal against Brentford: "I know him (Kayal) well and when I saw him on the right side I knew that he would try to cross the ball. I tried to put myself in a good position for the cross. I'm happy that I was in the right place.

"He did great work. I'm happy to score and I am happy with the assist for him."

Kayal's part in Albion's promotion cause has already been widely acknowledged. Hemed, over the course of the next three months, could be just as important.