And keeper impressed by Mulumbu’s cool finish
BEN Foster has heaped praise on his team-mates for showing the mettle to fight back from a goal behind to win 2-1 at Swansea on Saturday.
The England international pulled off a string of fine saves to keep the Baggies in the game at the Liberty Stadium.
But it was Youssouf Mulumbu who netted late on to seal Pepe Mel’s first Barclays Premier League win.
And Foster says it was important Albion settled for nothing less than all three points in South Wales.
“It was a really, really big win,” he said.
“It’s a tough place to go to whoever you are.
“To come away with three points, given our recent form, is a very nice feeling.
“To be fair to Swansea I thought they were brilliant first half.
“They’re a really tough team to come up against and we had to show a lot of character to come back into the game.
“I don’t think many teams would not have won that game after going behind so early.
“They were all over us but fair play to the lads we’ve got in our dressing room.
“It was obvious that we needed to get among them and stop them passing.
“We needed to get higher up the pitch.
“We made it difficult for them in the second half.
“We showed great team spirit to get the win.
“We need that every single game now and that has to be the standard for the rest of the season.
“We weren’t willing to settle for a point.
“Three points was going to be a tough ask but we were definitely always going to go for it.”
The 30-year-old stopper says he was as surprised as anyone to see Mulumbu charging forward with five minutes remaining.
“When I saw Youssouf running up the pitch like that I thought, ‘come on mate, what are you doing?’
“I love him to bits but I see him in training and his finishing is probably the weakest part of his game.
“It’s not his forte but fair play to him.
“It seemed to open up for him and it was a brilliant finish.”