Val’s happy Baggies stopped rot on road
VALERIEN Ismael was pleased enough that West Brom ‘stopped the bleeding’ after their streak of away defeats was ended following a goalless draw at Blackpool – and he has challenged his players to go one better when they return to The Hawthorns against Nottingham Forest on Friday night.
Ismael, like the travelling 2,000 supporters to Bloomfield Road on Tuesday night, was left frustrated by the lack of cutting edge which has dogged Albion in recent weeks and they fired another blank despite being the better side on the night.
This was, though, markedly better than the display served up at Huddersfield on Saturday, despite the fact Albion failed to reward their dominance with a goal and a victory, after which Ismael, his staff and the players held a meeting.
Now Ismael demands a similar level of performance, but with the goals and points to show for it, when Forest visit The Hawthorns.
“You can lose games. It doesn’t mean everything is s***. Huddersfield wasn’t bad in some situations, the result was poor,” Ismael reasoned. “After the game, we had a long meeting with the guys, we spoke and we felt something positive, something in the right direction.
“Today is the next step, we are now closer than we were last Saturday. We build on it, the intensity, we were more stable.
“We put in the effort. It was a tough away game, Blackpool have played a good season and we have to say from them it was a great performance.
“We should score goals again. Today it’s just the goal, it’s to obviously finish the job, but we can take a lot of positives after four [away] losses in a row.
“We stopped the bleeding. With that performance, we continue to build on it. It’s a slight step ahead, now we have a chance on Friday with a home game, to get the next three points.”
Albion, without suspended captain Jake Livermore, were thankful to Sam Johnstone for a stunning double save, but Blackpool – who have taken points off Fulham and Bournemouth so far this season – were otherwise manfully defending their own penalty area.
It was a mixture of that, and the Baggies forward line’s ineptitude, that meant that the spoils were shared.
“Of course we want to win games, but at the minute, step by step, we must take what we can get what is positive, to build on it and to take the next step,” Ismael added. “We know we’re really close now, and it’s just a question of making the breakthrough.”