Club News

McAuley: ‘We’re driven to try and get to 50 points’

Defender delighted with Baggies’ form

GARETH McAuley insists the Albion dressing room is “confident and driven to try and get to 50 points”.

Saturday’s 1-0 triumph over Stoke was the Baggies’ 10th Premier League victory of the season, as well as their sixth win in seven league games at The Hawthorns.

The result left Tony Pulis’ side in 8th, sitting on 36 points from 24 games in the top flight – their best return at this stage of a Premier League campaign, eclipsing the previous record of 34 points from 24 games in 2012/13.

And McAuley, who has played every minute of Albion’s league season so far, admits the players are striving to hit new heights.

He said: “It’s going pretty well for us, especially at home.

“The boys have been fantastic.

“We are winning games and in a good place.

“It’s a confident dressing room and we are driven to try and get to 50 points – where we haven’t got to before.

“We want to keep it going and keep focused.

“It’s a focus on winning the games in front of us.

“The likes of Fletch and Jonny coming in have given us a different edge and different mentality where we expect to win games against the teams around us.

“Before we just needed to survive.

“We’ve nearly got to 40 points which is important and after that we can really push on and hopefully get across the 50.”

The Northern Ireland international also praised the attacking players in the squad.

“The lads playing further up the pitch have been fantastic.

“Matty Phillips’ form has been outstanding.

“Brunty coming back into the team and Mozza getting fit again.

“Loads of things have come together in the last few months and given us a foot up and got us going.

“We’ve been trying to drive on since that.”