Jed Wallace was thrilled to be back in Baggies action at Rotherham United on Tuesday night having missed the previous two games with a shoulder injury.
The winger returned in the best way possible, firing in a spectacular free-kick in the final moments of the encounter to seal an important 2-0 win against the Millers.
Having started the night on the bench, skipper Wallace revealed Carlos Corberán had told him before the game he wouldn’t be coming on if Albion were leading.
However, the boss changed his mind and introduced the winger to the action with just over 20 minutes remaining, a decision which proved to be a wise one.
Jed insisted he was desperate to feature and also spoke of his delight at scoring such a special set-piece.
He said: “I’ve been desperate to get back. I don’t miss many games, so I was in a rush to get back out there to be honest.
“I managed to make the squad tonight and the gaffer said to me before the game that I wouldn’t come on if we were winning, so I’m glad he changed his mind.
“I think people see Rotherham’s position in the table and they expect us to come here and romp the game, but it’s never going to be that way.
“It’s a tough place to come and we’ve seen them take points off Leeds United and Ipswich Town recently, so it’s hard to come here and win.
“I thought the back four were outstanding. Cedric Kipre and Kyle Bartley were amazing tonight. You need to stand up and fight in this stadium because you know they are going to be direct.
“I thought the back four were excellent, Conor Townsend, Darnell Furlong and the two centre-backs too. They gave us a great platform to go and win the game.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be pretty and it was a difficult pitch. Their game is playing direct football up to the front players. There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s the way they see it best and we knew it would be a challenge and we knew we would have to be physical.
“We were so poor here last season and it was probably the worst game I’ve been involved in with us since I’ve been at the club. To come here after such a poor performance last year, I think we really put that right tonight.
“Everyone is working so hard collectively and that’s what you need when you come to places like Rotherham.”
Wallace went on to add: “To be fair, taking free-kicks is a big topic of debate at the moment. In training, Swifty scores loads, but he’s only scored the one at Watford.
“We’ve all been saying that we want a go at them and I think there was only me and Kyle Bartley who hadn’t had a go from one before tonight.
“Alex Mowatt let me take it and when I saw it go in, it was certainly a great feeling.”
