Daryl Dike stressed just how “eager” he is to make a positive contribution from now until the end of the season for Albion.
The 25-year-old forward earned his first league start of the 2025/26 campaign against Stoke City on Saturday afternoon, completing just over an hour of the goalless draw.
Darly believes there were plenty of plus points to take away from the performance on both an individual and collective level.
The American said: “It’s obviously a good feeling to start a game once again. I told myself I was always going to be ready and I was always going to take my chance.
“I’ve been wanting to contribute – I’ve been so eager to do so, especially with how things have been going.
“I was really happy to get the nod. I think my performance was alright. Naturally, as a striker, you always want to score and help the team win. We didn’t do that today, but I think the point is a good building block for us as a team and today is a good building block for me personally.
“I felt great physically and I really surprised myself. I was running around and felt fine. When they subbed me off I was a little bit annoyed because I wanted to keep going.
“I showed myself that I can still do everything that I can do. I know I have a lot to improve on.
“As a collective, we’ve been telling each other and showing each other that we have more to give.
“Now, in the position that we’re in, it was hard to accept a point when we got back into the dressing room. We want to win every single game, but as I said, given conditions recently, we’ll take a point and it’s building block. Luckily, we’ve got Tuesday to try and take all three.
“The gaffer told us to play with a bit more freedom and a bit more joy. We pressed and we were more on the front foot. We were confident. We have to find more of that confidence because we know that we can all play and do things.
“Training has been great in the past week and the tactics have been translated well. Being able to demonstrate that on the pitch is great and hopefully next time, three points will come.
“We’ve been moving through this season together and we’re going to make sure we finish on a high. We owe that to each other, to the fans and the club and everyone around to get out of the situation. We want to put things right and get as many points as possible.”
