Carlos Corberán stressed the importance of his side’s excellent home form following their 2-0 win against Cardiff City.
The head coach watched his team record their fifth consecutive league victory at The Hawthorns thanks to goals either side of half-time by Mikey Johnston and Andi Weimann.
And Corberán, in a post-match chat with WBA TV, the boss praised his team for “competing” and “concentrating” throughout the 90 minutes to earn three points and another clean sheet.
“First of all, for us it is always important to be a competitive team at home, and to play with the necessary determination to achieve this,” said the boss.
“We scored a very quick goal, with a very good cross and a very good finish by (Mikey) Johnston.
“After that we wanted to dominate and create chances, but in some moments, they had the ball more than we wanted them to have it.
“With the passing of minutes, we improved in the pressing and we improved in attack. But it is true that we didn’t create the chances we wanted to create.
“In the second half, we wanted to improve the team in attack, but the game was a little bit flat. And even when we had the ball, we couldn’t break their last line.
“They started to play a bit closer to our goal without creating too many chances. And I think in the last 20 minutes of the game, the players we brought on from the bench gave us more energy.
“They (the substitutes) adapted well to the needs of the game. The opponents started to press more, and in the breaking of the press we found the goal with a very good finish.
“Always, you want to win games playing your best. But there is an opponent there, they try to stop our attacks and you don’t always find the level of fluidity in the game that you want to find.
“When you don’t find the perfect attacking solutions, it’s important to compete, concentrate and use the opportunities you have to win the football game.
Corberán added: “Mikey (Johnston) is a player that offers us a lot of possibilities. He is a winger who can play wider than he played today, but at the same time he can play more as a playmaker.
“One of the key things we insist to him, is that he arrives in the box because he’s a player with a very good finish.
“That was the action of the goal, but in general he was helping the team a lot be patient, to switch the side of attack, because he’s someone with a lot of game understanding and quality.
“It’s important to me to recognise how important it is to have a bench. How important it is to be able to put players on the pitch who can impact the game.
“Those are possibilities that we have to use. Today with Jed (Wallace), Andi (Weimann), Nathaniel Chalobah, and Adam Reach, we find the necessary energy.
“Their actions, with the pass of Chalobah, the cross of Wallace and the finish of Weimann, we find the second goal that gives us three points.
“We need to do our best to keep the momentum at home, and to make our stadium difficult for teams to come here and compete.
“All of our people, when they support us they make us stronger. Of course confidence is important, but we also need to prepare well because it is going to be an important and challenging game.”
