West Brom manager Slaven Bilic says he has told his side to remain positive despite dropping points in the promotion race at Blackburn on Saturday afternoon.
Joe Rothwell’s second-half equaliser for Blackburn cancelled out Filip Krovinovic’s opener for the Baggies, forcing both sides to settle for a point from the game.
That result means that Bilic’s side are now just three points clear of third-placed Brentford in the battle for automatic promotion, with the Bees enjoying a stronger goal difference than West Brom.
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Perhaps not surprisingly therefore, a number of Baggies players were left disappointed by events on Saturday, but Bilic is determined to get that out of their system before they continue their push for promotion at home to another promotion-hopeful, Fulham, on Tuesday night.
Speaking to the Birmingham Mail after the match, Bilic said: “That is what I have told the guys – stay positive. I’m not happy with how we played the last 20 minutes after we conceded.
“After that going forward we were okay but we were always going to be. We lost shape, we stretched the game, the game became stretched too much and that is why they had those couple of chances.
“Up until then, as I said, I was very, very pleased with the performance, but you have to kill the game off. We didn’t.”
You feel it is vital that Bilic is able to keep his player’s heads up over the next few days.
If they do drop, then there will be an opportunity for Fulham to really put the pressure on in midweek, which could then leave the Baggies’ in an even more precarious position in the promotion race.
Indeed, with the number of chances they had against Blackburn, they can at least be encouraged by what was an at times dominant performance, which certainly suggests they can still get the points they need to ensure their return to the Premier League.
