Sam’s ‘home truths’ to side after big loss

SAM Allardyce revealed that ‘home truths’ were aired in the dressing room after West Brom’s latest heavy Hawthorns defeat, this time to Manchester City on Tuesday night.

Allardyce didn’t emerge to speak to the various assembled press post-match almost an hour after the final whistle as Pep Guardiola’s City ran riot against an Albion outfit who have serious problems on home soil.

Ilkay Gundogan’s brace, coupled with goals from Joao Cancelo and Riyad Mahrez put the game out of reach by half time, before Raheem Sterling added a fifth in the second half to send City top.

Albion, meanwhile, now face a make or break period during which time they come up against the other five in the division’s bottom six, but have now comfortably the leakiest defence in the league.

Apologising for his lateness, after explaining that he had more important things to take care of in the Albion dressing room post-match, Allardyce reasoned that he needed to vent his disappointment.

“A few home truths needed to be said.

“It had to be done now because there’s a short period of time before the next game, and the game after that,” Allardyce said.

“Those games stand high on what we need to do.

“I needed to get my disappointment and my feelings over to the players after the game, they needed to air their views, that’s fine. We’re in this together.

“To get it done now means it is done and dusted – we must move forward and not see that again for the rest of the season.

“We have to (continue) because we’ve got 18 games to go – it’s a difficult task, we need 27 points minimum to stay safe. What will determine our fate comes in the next two games.

“If we win, we’re going to get closer to the teams above us if we can take three points off Fulham and Sheffield United, it’s something we have to aim at. It’d increase the pressure on them as well.”