Miron Muslic hailed Plymouth’s “defensive structure” after securing a first Sky Bet Championship win as head coach with a 2-1 victory against West Brom at Home Park.
Argyle broke their transfer record to sign Ukraine international defender Maksym Talovierov this week and he started alongside fellow new signing Nikola Katic in a new-look defence.
Muslic felt his back-line was solid, saying: “It’s about signing the right players.
“I was very pleased with our defensive structure. We need to stabilise the team and I think we did that again today.”
A late double from striker Ryan Hardie cancelled out fellow substitute Jayson Molumby’s second-half opener for the Baggies as the Greens ended a 15-match spell without a league win.
Muslic, who took charge three weeks ago, added: “I am very proud and very happy. I am delighted for the lads to win after not being able to win a game for three months.
“Not winning for so long makes your legs a bit heavier, but I said last week we were taking a step in the right direction and we’ve taken another one today.
“We are ready to face the situation.
“I spoke about having to change the mentality in the locker room. You can’t change 15 players.
“We didn’t deserve to lose this game. We kept pushing and we got our rewards.
“It takes a lot of guts to come back from 1-0 down when you are in our position, but we did it. It’s proof of life again.
“I was very pleased with Hardie. He scored two good goals. He wasn’t pleased before the game because he wanted to play, and that’s good. But he showed bravery to take the penalty and then he got the winner.”
West Brom boss Tony Mowbray said: “We lost here 2-1 when I was with Sunderland and it turned out to be one of those days again.
“I’m not sure how we lost that to be honest. Probably not enough shots?
“They played five across the back and they played a lot deeper than they normally do. We found it difficult to break them down.
“Substitutions were put on to try and win the game.
“We have to put the ball in the back of the net when we were on top.
“The thought was ‘let’s got and try and win the game’.
“We wouldn’t be happy to come away with anything less than a point here. I genuinely thought we played well enough to win that game.
“Lots went right today, we just didn’t get the result. We are just a bit frustrated not to have got something from the game.”
As for the penalty, Mowbray said: “Is there a rule that says you have to put your hand behind your back now?
“You have to take these types of decisions in your stride.
“I’ve done that for 20 years. You don’t go in to see (the officials) about that because it doesn’t make any difference to the score.”
