Skipper tells basement battlers Baggies will not switch off
CHRIS Brunt has made a pledge to the teams scrapping for their Barclays Premier League lives that Albion will not switch off in their final four games.The Baggies face two of the bottom-seven sides battling against relegation, with a home clash against Wigan on Saturday (ko 3pm) and a trip to Norwich on Sunday week (ko 7.45pm) sandwiching a midweek visit to second-placed Manchester City.
And the Hawthorns skipper expects his team-mates to continue fighting until the final minute of the season, as they did last term.
“We want as many points as possible and over 50 points would be great,” said Brunt, who will sit out the Latics encounter due to a knee injury.
“That’s definitely something we were looking at at the start of the season.
“In the last couple of seasons we have got 47 points and we have always thought one more win would have taken us to 50.
“Now we’ve left ourselves with four games to do it and that’s another target for us to try to beat again next season.
“Last year we didn’t have much to play for in the last three or four games but we went to Bolton in the penultimate game and went 2-0 down but didn’t give up, dug in and got a point.
“It’s only fair to the rest of the league that we do the same now.
"We can’t just roll over and give Wigan the points because that’s not right.
“As players we want to win to get to 50 points.
"We want to get as many points as possible and do well in our home games as well.
“We’ve had a good home record this season so it would be disappointing to let it slip now.
“Our last home game is Manchester United and that is a difficult one, but we would like to go out on a high at The Hawthorns.
“Wigan have everything to play for, so it’s going to be a tough game.
“We know what Wigan are all about and it’s important that we give a good account of ourselves.”
The Baggies will come up against a familiar face in the Latics line-up as Paul Scharner makes his first return to The Hawthorns since leaving at the end of last season.
Brunt added: “Paul had two good seasons here and his experience was a big part of the reasons we stayed up in those two seasons.
“I know a lot of the fans took to him and he did a lot of stuff of his own bat for fans, so he’s a popular figure, but we’ll not be doing him any favours.”