Right-back calls on colleagues to finish season in style
STEVEN Reid insists ‘personal pride’ will see his Albion team-mates fight for every available point between now and the end of the season – beginning at Chelsea tomorrow (ko 3pm).
Back-to-back victories over Liverpool and Sunderland helped all-but mathematically secure Barclays Premier League football at The Hawthorns next term - with the Baggies 16 points clear of the relegation zone on 40, with 11 games remaining.
And the 31-year-old right-back, who has almost ten years’ experience in the top-flight, believes his colleagues have the required desire to march on into May.
“It comes down to personal pride and how far you want to go and how much you want to achieve as a player,” said Reid.
“If you just sack it off at 40 points you don’t really deserve to be playing in the Premier League.
“You have to want to win every game and give everything in every game.
“So as much as anything it’s down to us as players where we want to finish.
“We’ve got to the 40-point mark and it’s up to us to players how far we kick on.
“We know we’ve got the ability to do it and I’m sure training will carry on as it has been, so it will come down to a bit of personal pride and desire.”
The former Ireland international hopes Albion can improve on their best-ever Premier League points total of 47, but believes if they can return to the form which saw them positioned third at the end of November, the Baggies can still push for a sixth-place finish.
“We want to finish as high as possible, hopefully break the record for the number of points in the Premier League and hopefully improve on last season, which I think we will do,” added Reid.
“The top six is still a possibility at this stage in the season, we’ve got nothing to lose now and hopefully we can have a big push for the end of the season.
“Europe’s not out of the question if we can go on another run with 11 games left.
“Our first 13 games of the season were unbelievable and if we can do that again who knows where we can finish?
“We’ve just got to aim to improve on last season first and foremost and see where that takes us.
“If we can match the start we will finish in European places. I’ve got no doubt about that.
“It’s a possibility and we’ve just got to hope we can do it.
“With two wins we’re back in a decent position and we’re looking to really kick on now.
“It’s going to be a tough ask but we’ve shown this season we can do it.”
Reid is still waiting for his first win at Chelsea in his ten years in the Barclays Premier League.
He came close last term when the Baggies opened the scoring through Shane Long and almost doubled their lead through Somen Tchoyi in the first half before the Blues turned it around with two goals after the break to win 2-1.
“They will want to be getting a result and it’s going to be a difficult game,” he added.
“It’s a stadium where I’ve never won in ten years so it would be nice to break that.
“We should have been 2-0 up last season when Somen Tchoyi should have scored the second and we dominated that first half.
“Against the top teams you don’t often have chances like that and we went on to lose 2-1.
“It would be nice to go there and get a win, which is what we’ll be aiming to do.”
Reid is still waiting for his first win at Chelsea in his ten years in the Barclays Premier League.
He came close last term when the Baggies opened the scoring through Shane Long and almost doubled their lead through Somen Tchoyi in the first half before the Blues turned it around with two goals after the break to win 2-1.
“They will want to be getting a result and it’s going to be a difficult game,” he added.
“It’s a stadium where I’ve never won in ten years so it would be nice to break that.
“We should have been 2-0 up last season when Somen Tchoyi should have scored the second and we dominated that first half.
“Against the top teams you don’t often have chances like that and we went on to lose 2-1.
“It would be nice to go there and get a win, which is what we’ll be aiming to do.”