Carlos Corberán has challenged his players to deliver a strong performance in what he believes will be a “very competitive atmosphere” at Rotherham United on Good Friday (ko 1pm).
The Baggies and the Millers are both in need of a positive result at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, with Corberán’s men hunting down a spot in the top six and the hosts fighting to try and keep hold of their Sky Bet Championship status.
Albion sit five points off the Play-Off positions, while Rotherham United, who suffered a 3-0 defeat at The Hawthorns a week before Christmas in the reverse fixture, are two points above the danger zone at the other end of the division.
And Corberán is expecting a very demanding test in South Yorkshire on Friday lunchtime, insisting his side’s “desire and focus” has to be spot on if they’re to come away with a crucial win.
He said: “It’s a massive weekend for us, but we must first focus on the game that we play at Rotherham United on Friday.
“We are always determined to win the next game and that’s the only one we are focusing on at the moment.
“We have that ambition to go for the three points and we will give our best to achieve that.
“Our desire, competitiveness and focus to perform always need to be at the maximum because we will then be closer to achieving the result that we all want.
“I don’t expect any difference in the competitiveness of the game against Rotherham compared to the one we had last week against Millwall.
“The two teams have a lot of similarities and I know that Rotherham will create a very competitive atmosphere on Friday. We need to be ready for that.
“They are one of the most aggressive teams in terms of pressing high. We will need to know how to solve this during the game.
“They’ll be very demanding and we need to be able to cope with that and impose our own style on the contest.
“It’s very important for us to make sure we’re winning games away from home now.
“When you’re at home and you can feel the fans behind you it can give you an extra level, but we also need to know that our fans are supporting us away from home too, travelling to the opposition stadiums.
“We know that we have lots of fans travelling to Rotherham United, more than 2,000 people.
“They will be supporting and backing the team which means so much to us. We also know that there are more than fifty or sixty thousand supporters who’ll be enjoying the result with us, or being disappointed with us if we don't get the result we want, wherever they are following us from.
“We know exactly what we want. We want to win the game to add three points to our tally and we want to make our fans proud.”
