Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

JAKE HEART Stop firing blanks and we’ll win title, claims Livermore

- BY CALLUM ELLIS

JAKE LIVERMORE told his West Brom team-mates to forget about lifting the Championsh­ip trophy until they rediscover their attacking threat.

The England internatio­nal watched Leeds move past his side to the top of the table after only registerin­g one shot on target in this stalemate.

And Livermore says the Championsh­ip’s joint top goalscorer­s need to work out quickly how to tear teams apart again if they want to pip Marcelo Bielsa’s side to the title.

“The gap is still six points on the play-offs but we’re disappoint­ed that we haven’t come away with three points,” Livermore said.

“Good luck to Leeds, they can do whatever they need to do, but we’re here to win the league.

“It didn’t quite go for us in the final third today but we will be telling the boys to keep their chins up and we go again next week.

“We nullified their attacks and we looked solid, but didn’t quite have that cutting edge. It’s difficult but we’ll keep our spirits up. We had periods where we were OK but, as we know, that’s not good enough for where we want to be.”

Despite only testing Swans keeper Freddie Woodman the once with a Callum Robinson shot, Slaven Bilic’s side remain two wins clear of Fulham and the chasing pack in the race for automatic promotion.

This was the second league game in a row where the Baggies have failed to score, but Livermore says the point will be a valuable one in the race to regain their Premier League status.

“We had a little blip against

Wigan, which was the third game in a week, and they’re in good form,” he added. “And I thought the boys did fantastic against Newcastle in the FA Cup.

“I should have scored and we had another couple of chances. We may not be where we want to be but in the grand scheme of things it’s another point, which may take us where we need to be.”

The draw saw Swansea drop a place in the table but they are still just three points off the play-off places. And ahead of next week’s clash at Middlesbro­ugh, defender Joe Rodon (left) urged them to grasp their opportunit­y.

The Wales star said: “It’s very tight from about fourth to 10th in the league table.

“It’s all about the next game and we really want to make it happen. Hopefully we can start collecting points, start a run and push on towards the end of the season.”

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