Jed: Eyes still on the prize despite draw

CAPTAIN Jed Wallace says his side need to learn how to defend a lead better after dropping two points at Stoke but promised they are still positive ahead of two home games this week and the target has not changed.

West Brom still have their fate entirely in their own hands, sitting comfortably in fifth spot two ahead of Norwich and six ahead of Coventry in seventh with just five games to go after the weekend.

Speaking after the 2-2 draw at Stoke, in which the Baggies looked to be plain sailing at two goals up, Wallace, who scored the second goal, vowed: “Our target doesn’t change despite Saturday’s frustration.

“It’s about what we do and not other teams. We know how many points we want to get to, to give ourselves a chance of getting in the play-offs.

“We’ll go over the game and learn how to defend better when we’re in the lead.

“We’ll be in training and we’ll be positive again. We’ll be fully focused on Wednesday (at home to Rotherham).”

Analysing the game in detail, he continued: “The feeling after that one is frustration and disappointment. We know how good we are defensively. I think we’ve always been a team that if we score first, we fancy ourselves to go on and win the game.

“It’s sort of the tale of the Championship. Last home game, we fought back from 2-0 down to earn a point (against Watford), but Saturday, they did. Everyone is desperate for points at this stage of the season, so it’s really disappointing when we get ourselves in that position to give away the first and then a penalty.

“Alex Palmer makes a great save, but he’s just unlucky it falls straight back to the lad.

“The flip side to Saturday is that we know we’ve got two home games coming up.

“We said a while ago we wanted to stop losing away and start picking up points, and then also winning our home games, which we’ve done on the whole for the majority of the season.

“Watford we didn’t win, but we’ve got more than enough experience on the pitch to see that one out, the likes of myself, Barts, Darnell, Conor, Matty, Alex Palmer, Yann, Alex Mowatt.

“Credit to Stoke. I thought they made it difficult for us and I thought they played really well throughout the game.

“The conditions were difficult too. The wind was everywhere and they were putting a lot of balls in behind us. At times, it was a bit of a carnage Championship game.

“We showed really good bits of play from Grady and Brandon to get those goals and to get ahead.

“But then we’re really disappointed with how the rest of the game played out.

“I think we need to keep using the squad because you saw the quality we had on the bench today. Those players can come on and change games and they have to be ready to do that.”