SIMON Cox hailed his team-mates' character after bouncing back from back-to-back league and cup defeats by coming from behind to beat Derby 3-1.

The Hawthorns victory lifted the Baggies back to second place in the Coca-Cola Championship table above nearest rivals Nottingham Forest, who lost 3-0 at Leicester and are now two points behind having played a game more.

And super sub Cox put the icing on the cake by taking his season's goal tally into double figures with Albion's third seven minutes from time.

"It was a massive win," he said.

"It shows good character to come back from 1-0 down.

"They were two good finishes from Brunty and it was nice to score myself.

"The gaffer told me to keep making runs between the centre-halves and have a good blow-out to see if I could get a goal.

"I've not played the lone-striker role before. It's a first for me. I'm not the biggest - but it's interesting.

"If I can come on and do that then I'm happy with that

"We didn't want any more set-backs and we showed good character, the lads dug in and got three points.

"We've been rewarded with three days off for those of us who aren't away with national teams.

"That will do us well as we're a bit tired.

"We dug in on Saturday knowing we can have a break and it was a good day with Forest losing.

"We knew it would be horrible because of what we came up against at their place.

"It was going to be a horrible game of football but we stuck at our task and got the win."

With 13 games remaining Cox is hoping Albion can use their victory over the Rams to propel them to automatic promotion.

And he admits the lottery of the play-offs is something Roberto Di Matteo's men are keen to avoid.

"We're hoping it won't go to the wire," the £1.9million summer-signing added.

"We're obviously hoping to seal it as quickly as possible.

"We will try and get it closed as quickly as we can.

"It's not a fear of the play-offs but as players we've said it's not an option.

"We don't want play-offs, we want automatic.

"If we keep winning then we should avoid them but if we're in them, then we're in them, and we will go into them with confidence.