Alex Williams said Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup clash at Newcastle has made him “hungry for more” after the young full-back put in a performance to be proud of at St. James’ Park.
Albion fell to a narrow 3-2 defeat against the Premier League Magpies, but the 21-year-old played 90 minutes and caught the eye on Wednesday evening.
And despite the result, right-back Alex knows he and his teammates can take a lot of positives from the evening.
“Coming here and walking out makes you so hungry for more,” he said. “Games like this are what you want in your career.
“That’s what we strive for and with our performance level at the moment, it’s definitely not out of our reach. We all want to do more, so we’re all very excited for what the future holds.
“Coming into this game, we didn’t want to play a different way, and I don’t think we did that. We had really good spells in the game, caused some problems and scored some great goals.
“I’m proud of it and we’re proud as a team. I hold myself to high standards and I definitely could do better at times, but those are the lessons you learn.
“You’ve got to look at the bigger picture, and I think I can be proud of myself tonight.”
“When I found out I was starting, it was unreal - it’s the stuff you dream of, playing games on nights like this in front of 50,000 fans.
“I found out in training and it’s nice to know the gaffer trusts you to represent the shirt when you’re a younger player. You’re buzzing beforehand and then you look back on it now and it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my career.
“It’s surreal when you come up against players like they have. You look up and they’re driving at you one-on-one and you realise how difficult the night could be. But you have to trust yourself, this is what you train for, what you prepare for, and it’s an incredible experience.
“You have to relish the opportunity to play against players who played at the World Cup and people like Harvey Barnes.
“You know you’re in for a tough night, but the lessons you learn afterwards are so important.
“I had people come out to watch. It’s a long way from home, but like the travelling fans, they put a shift in, and we have a lot of respect for the fans for making that journey.
“Credit to the travelling fans because we could hear them over the home fans for most of the match.”
