Club News

Lescott issues rallying call

Baggies face Hull, Villa and QPR in next three games

JOLEON Lescott has called upon his team-mates to step up to the plate in the next three “vital” fixtures and help Albion get back on track.

Despite taking the lead and then dominating the second half on Tuesday night, the Baggies fell to a 2-1 loss against high-flying West Ham at The Hawthorns.

It proved to be a fourth successive reverse having come on the back of defeats against Arsenal, Chelsea and another in-form side in the shape of Newcastle.

Prior to that, Albion had lost just one of their last six Barclays Premier League encounters, including wins over Leicester, Burnley and Tottenham.

And influential centre-back Lescott wants to see Albion recapture that very form as they prepare to face three sides in and around them in the table – starting with a trip to Hull on Saturday before matches against Villa and then QPR this side of Christmas.  

“The next three games are vital,” said Lescott, who took the captain’s armband from an injured Chris Brunt on Tuesday night and may well don it at the KC Stadium should the latter not recover in time from a hamstring problem.

“The West Ham match was a massive game for us on the back of three defeats.

“Anything you get from Chelsea or Arsenal is a bonus - now it’s realistic that we can pick up some points, there’s no reason we can’t go on and win the next three games.”

He continued: “It’s not great for anyone involved.

“The manager, obviously, of any team tends to get the stick but it’s the players, we need to look at ourselves and we need to realise that what we’re doing might be okay but it’s not good enough, we’re not winning games and not picking up any points.

“We need to look at ourselves and realise what’s at stake.”

Albion started positively against the Hammers and duly took the lead courtesy of Craig Dawson’s early header.

Kevin Nolan and James Tomkins swung the game around before the visitors had to withstand a second-half barrage of pressure from Albion which ultimately came without reward. 

Lescott insists the Baggies can take heart from their encouraging display, although he admits he would happily take all three points any which way they come against Hull this weekend.

“The last two games have been better performances but the results are the same. As the cliché goes, it’s a results business,” he said.

“It’s not going too well at the moment, but we can take some credit from the performance, and not just the second half which I thought we pretty much dominated.

“Also the first half, I thought we started really well but they had a spell when they got two goals.

“We want the points and sometimes you’d rather not play well and win games, which we did in our last win against Leicester, we didn’t play great but we won  - which you’d take.”