Club News

Brunt ready for Hammers fight

Club skipper confident Albion can extend positive home record

CHRIS Brunt believes Albion’s impressive home record will result in tougher encounters at The Hawthorns with West Ham providing the next test this afternoon (ko 4pm). 

The Baggies have won six of their eight Barclays Premier League home fixtures this season and three more points against the Hammers will see Steve Clarke’s men equal last term’s Hawthorns return of 21 points.  

And the club skipper insists his Albion team-mates are capable of earning their seventh home victory of the term if they can break down the league’s fifth tightest defence.  

“We’ve been good at home and teams are maybe a little more wary of us now than they were before and they are more cautious against us,” said Brunt.

“It can be difficult because expectation levels go up and you’re expected to turn teams over.

“But we saw last season at The Hawthorns that’s not always the case.

“Sometimes it’s a lot more difficult to play against teams at home than away.

“That said it’s up to us to try to break them down and win games no matter how the opposition play against us.”

Only four members of Albion’s Premier League squad have failed to make a league appearance this campaign.   

And Brunt admits his fellow players are now accustomed to the rotation system employed by head coach Steve Clarke.  

“The gaffer and coaching staff have changed things nearly every game this season," he added.

“They’ve chopped and changed the team, tactically as well, when they see fit.

“I’m sure they’ll have every bit of the games covered and they’ll know what to do going into every game.

“But the gaffer has got a good squad of players to pick from and he picks the team depending on who we’re playing against, not necessarily on previous games.

“I’ve been here long enough to know that’s how football works.

“Hopefully I can stay injury-free for a while and keep playing but everyone is going to have to keep playing at the top of their game because there are people waiting in the wings to come in.

“We’ve shown already we can chop and change a couple of players and it doesn’t affect us too much, hopefully we can do that over the next few weeks.”