West Brom interim boss Chris Brunt hailed a good team effort after he got his first win in charge with a 3-1 victory over Preston.
The Baggies produced a devastating first-half display as Josh Maja scored twice, either side of Callum Styles netting his first goal for the club.
Preston have only won once on the road this term and Ryan Ledson’s second-half consolation was not enough to stop their poor away form from continuing.
Brunt, who is in charge after Carlos Corberan left for Valencia, said: “Brilliant to get the three points. It was a game of two halves. The way we took our chances was good and to be 3-0 up at half-time was unexpected.
“The boys that came off the bench did well and we saw the game out which was important.
“The intensity was always guaranteed to drop just purely based on the schedule of games, in the back of your head you’re considering Saturday as well. This period of games is a nightmare as a player.”
Maja has found goalscoring hard to come by recently following a blistering start to the season, having not netted in eight games, but the striker took his tally to 12 for the campaign.
Brunt added: “Nice to see him get on the end of it.
“His link-up play is so good, he’s an intelligent football player, does a really good job for the team and brings a lot of other attacking threats into the game by dropping into spaces and he did well today.
“He got himself into the box and picked up a couple of things that maybe haven’t been falling for him recently. He was really good today.”
Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom could not hide his frustration after conceding what he thinks are “terrible” goals.
He said: “The goals we conceded were shocking today and that’s what gave the game away.
“They punished us and defended better than us. We gave them three goals and really poor from our point of view. The three goals today were terrible. It’s just frustrating, I would’ve liked West Brom to work harder than that.
“Certainly going to look at our approach away from home. I want to get points on the board.
“I get so frustrated because they’re better than what they’re showing but at the minute it seems only I think that. I want to be a good force away from home as well.
“It sounds like I’m hammering the players but I’m not. It’s something I don’t want to see happen.”
