Reyes Cleary is hoping to use his recent Young Lions call-up to help Albion’s PL2 side “kick on” during the final stage of the season - starting with their trip to Derby County on Monday evening (ko 7pm).
Away matches always provide difficult tests for visiting teams, but Richard Beale’s men have fared well on their travels this term - winning four, drawing three and losing just once in eight games on opposition turf.
One more goal will take Cleary’s tally to 20 goals for the campaign in all competitions, and the striker is hoping to take “pressure” off his team-mates by finding the net against the Rams to help the young Baggies to an important three points in their Play-Off push.
Ahead Monday's trip to the Loughborough University Stadium, Cleary said: “It was a good experience getting on the pitch and playing with the best players in the country for my age group.
“Just playing a different level of football makes me a better player when I come back to Albion. When you play for England, you keep the ball a lot and I felt that helped my link-up play so I’m looking to kick on with that and be more confident on the ball.
“I always get excited before game days now.
“Knowing I’m going to have opportunities to score is great and doing that just takes the pressure off the team.
“Even in training when I score a goal, I’ll celebrate because I love scoring and it comes naturally to me, but I know I have to keep practicing it day in, day out to continue it.
“When I was a second-year scholar last season, I jumped up to the 21s and I was scoring goals there and that gave me a boost. As a result of that, I feel I’ve been able to take control of games this year.
“I just need more experience with men’s football now because doing it against them is the next main aim for me.
“The ability to do it Saturday-Tuesday is important because there’s a lot of games and playing with that high intensity regularly is something I need to master going forwards.
“We treat every team as a top team in our league and we know there’s never any easy games, which is why we always put 100 per cent into everything we do.
“Fans are on our side at home, but away from home they’re against us and that makes us want to win even more.
“We want three points from every game and the last league match was a tough one to take, but the lads are looking to take the win from the Birmingham Senior Cup into this one and we’re ready for it.”
