Slaven Bilic has paid tribute to his captain Jake Livermore as the unnamed hero of Albion’s thrilling victory over Swansea at The Hawthorns.
The Baggies 5-1 win swept them back to the top of the table and made it six wins in a row as they keep up the pace at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.
Once again, the goals were spread across the team with defenders, midfielders and a striker scoring - all of who dominated the excited post-match chatter about the division’s top scorers.
But Slaven was keen to salute the contribution of the man to whom he handed the captain’s armband at the start of the campaign.
“I am always very reluctant to single out individual players although sometimes it is inevitable,” said Slaven.
“After the game, I was asked about players like Matheus and Grady and their goals and that is, of course, only to be expected.
“But I want to also mention our leader, the skipper. I want to praise his leadership and his quality, the example he sets to the team and the job he is doing for us.
“Jake has been excellent from the very start and he has taken up the role of leading the team from the front.
“Neither should anyone underestimate the quality of his contribution on the pitch. He is my skipper and I am very pleased to have him.”
The Baggies now look to take their exciting form in search of more success on the road as they face Wigan on Wednesday and then return to the West Midlands for the derby against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on Saturday.
Their winning run has matched that last achieved in the promotion-winning season of 2003-04 and has established a 10-point cushion from third.
But Slaven has urged all at the club not to get ahead of themselves.
“Without other teams making a miracle, and without us dropping down, how many games do you need to close a gap of 10 points? Ten games," he said. "There are 26 games to go, so basically they have two-and-a-half times to do it. Our advantage means nothing.”
