Darnell Furlong says Albion’s stalemate with Blues gives the Baggies something to build on after football returned to The Hawthorns following a three-month absence.
The 24-year-old full-back believes Slaven Bilić’s men deserved more than a point from the 0-0 derby draw but were perhaps lacking a little luck in their first outing since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.
And Darnell is excited to be back on the Hawthorns turf but admits football without fans brings new challenges to the sport.
“First of all it’s really nice to be back,” said Darnell.
“We have missed this place and we have missed the competitive side of things. It was a tough one, and it’s always going to be a tough one the first game. It felt almost the first game of the season. The first 90 minutes is always hard. I thought the boys managed to produce the performance and just the result wasn’t there.
“We were just missing that little bit of luck really. A couple of times we had it in their six-yard box and we were just looking for the knock-in. These things happen and I am very proud of the boys and how we have come back and what the boys have been doing on their own when we weren’t in.
“You can tell everyone has been working really hard. We have been prepared perfectly by the sports science team here and we are raring to go.
“I’ve missed playing. I’ve really missed it. As a team we are looking to build on it and see what happens.
“If we want to do what we are trying to do this season then we need to get clean sheets because that gives the front boys the chance to do what they can and they don’t need to be scoring three or four goals, just one will do if we can do that. We are definitely trying to do that for the team.
“Slaven said he was proud of us. The first one back is always difficult like I said. He said he was proud of us, just the result wasn’t there. He said we are not happy with the result but he couldn’t really ask for more from the boys’ work rate. It’s just time to build on it.”