Albion’s new owner is MEAL deal! – Jed
JED Wallace has revealed Shilen Patel introduced himself to the Albion squad before the recent draw at QPR by joining them for their pre-match meal – and the first impressions were positive.
The club’s new owner and chairman, who completed his majority takeover from Guochuan Lai at the end of February, has already attended games against Southampton and QPR and the Floridian intends to return to England in due course with his family to see the Baggies in action again.
Patel saw Albion draw 2-2 with QPR but beforehand took the opportunity to meet with the players. Wallace, who scored in the 2-0 victory over Bristol City on Saturday, has led the line for Albion in recent weeks in the absence of a natural centreforward, and appreciated the effort made by Patel to endear himself to the squad, as he offered encouragement in their bid to return to the Premier League at the third time of asking.
“He spoke to us before the QPR game and came to introduce himself to the lads – to be honest, it was very motivational what he said to us,” revealed the captain. “He said we have an opportunity to make the fans really proud this season and we shouldn’t take that opportunity for granted. It was great to see him, he had a pre-match meal with us.
“Things like that go a long way, being around a group of players, and I know he’s keen to come and watch a lot of our games, and that’s the way it should be. From the groundstaff upwards, we all feel as though we’re pushing in the right direction.”
Albion’s comfortable victory over the Robins at The Hawthorns sees them cemented in the Championship’s play-off places.
They are eight points clear of seventh-placed Hull and, while the Tigers have a game in hand, head coach Carlos Corberan has reiterated no complacency will be permitted in the run-in.
“We always knew the quality we had here – and the manager we have,” added Wallace. “We’ve done well as a club, we kept the noise to a minimum. There’s not been the negativity around the club because how well the team have done.
“I said from the first day of the season, we’ve been united at the training ground and with the fans.
“They’ve stayed patient with us, because games now are like a game of chess – it’s not like it was ten years ago where it’s been bang, bang, bang, but that’s how the top teams play these days.”
Wallace has urged his team-mates to continue “disappointing” the teams below them in the battle for the play-offs.
As the business end of the season and busy Easter schedule approaches, he wants the Baggies to carry on
winning, insisting everything else will take care of itself as the likes of Norwich, Hull, Coventry and others wait to pounce.
Wallace, who will face former club Millwall when the teams return from the international break, said: “For us, we need to keep disappointing the teams below. Every time they come in, they need to see we’ve won again.
“We need to keep them as far away as possible. We need to concentrate on ourselves and we know how important this next block of games will be after the break. We’ll get a bit of a breather now and then we’ll move onto Millwall.”
Analysing the Bristol City win, he said: “It was a game that could have been a real banana skin. We know Bristol City have the capability to challenge anyone in this league on their day. They have beaten Southampton and pushed Ipswich really close as well.
“It was probably a game everyone expected us to win, but it was the epitome of professionalism from us. From the first minute, the lads were bang on it.
“We scored two important goals at two important times. Tom (Fellows) got the first before the break and then I managed to get the second just after. Those goals just settled us down and helped us get through the rest of the game.
“It was a tight first half, they were sat in their shape and it was difficult to break them down. Mikey Johnston got down the side a couple of times and got a few shots off, but it was great from Tom to come inside and put it in that bottom corner. It was the perfect time to score.
“The second goal came quickly in the second half and then we saw the game out.
“You can see the defensive work we do on the training ground. When we’re ahead, I always feel confident in our ability to defend the box and press when we need to.
“We looked really good in the last half-hour. It’s another positive day and the international break comes at a good time for us after a win.”