BEN: I’M HERE FOR KEEPS
Foster pledges to stay if Baggies are relegated
BEN FOSTER insists West Brom’s under-fire players care about the club and says he is willing to stay if Albion are relegated.
The Baggies ended a nightmare eight-game losing streak with a deserved draw against Swansea.
It will make no difference to the survival hopes of a club 10 points adrift at the bottom of the table.
But their battling display was appreciated by fans and new caretaker Darren Moore, their fourth manager this term.
Moore took charge when Alan Pardew’s four-month reign, which saw just one league win, was ended last week.
Keeper Foster said: “If the worst comes to the worst and we end up in the Championship next season we’ve got to bounce back up, it’s as simple as that. I’ll be here. I’ve no interest in trying to move clubs.
“I’m very settled and I’m sure there are quite a few others who would love to stay to help us get back to the Premier League.
“I’d like to keep a core of the players that really want to dig in and work hard and be in a tough fight to get out of the Championship because it is a tough fight as well It’s really different to the Premier League and we need to go about it to get back first time to where we should be.”
Albion’s performance under Moore, promoted from first team coach, suggested their survival bid would have been helped had Pardew departed earlier.
Jonny Evans was injured so Moore switched to 4-4-2, gave stalwart Chris Brunt the armband and recalled James McClean to add tenacity on the flank.
Jay Rodriguez gave Albion a 54thminute lead, but Tammy Abraham – on loan from Chelsea – levelled when he headed home Sam Clucas’ superb corner in the 75th minute for his first league goal in 18 appearances. West Brom have now dropped 26 points from winning positions in the top-flight this season.
Their habit of conceding from set-pieces also makes a mockery of their tendency to score from them under former boss Tony Pulis.
Foster, who joined Albion in 2011 from relegated Birmingham, sighed: “That’s what gets you relegated. They’re the games you need to win.
“You win them, you stay up, you don’t win them, you get dragged into a relegation fight. Premier League football is so brutal at times.
“The main thing is we’ve lost points from winning positions where in previous years we didn’t, especially under Tony Pulis. If we went 1-0 up we would win 1-0.”