Kevin Phillips today dismissed fears that a ‘Wembley hangover’ could hit Albion’s crucial run-in in the race to the Premier League.
The striker insisted the Baggies will bounce back quickly from the heartbreak of Saturday’s semi-final defeat to Portsmouth and said there is no time for moping over the result.
Tony Mowbray’s side are back in action tomorrow when they resume their promotion campaign in a re-arranged game at Blackpool.
And Phillips said: “I personally don’t think we’ll have any Wembley hangover. There’s too much determination and quality in this squad for that to happen.
“I’m sure Blackpool will have something to say about that, but if we can play like we did on Saturday for the rest of the season then hopefully we’ll be OK.
“We’ve got to take the positives out of it. We matched a strong, powerful team who are sixth in the Premier League.
“That’s clear for everyone to see. We’re not a million miles away from teams like that.
“I really enjoyed it out there and we really want to be playing opposition like that week-in, week-out.
“We’ve still got an excellent opportunity to do that but what we can’t do is feel sorry for ourselves.
“We can’t afford to go to Bloomfield Road tomorrow and let ourselves or the supporters down because yet again they were fantastic and I feel for them.
“That’s twice they have been to Wembley now and they went home losers again.
“But I’m sure they will turn out in their droves again tomorrow night.”
And Phillips’ sentiments were echoed by midfield man James Morrison, who called on his team mates to take out their semi-final anger on the Tangarines at Bloomfield Road tomorrow in a match that could take them top of the Championship.
“We’ve got to look forward to tomorrow now and take our frustrations out on Blackpool,” said Morrison.
“We passed the ball really well and if we do that tomorrow I don’t think there are many teams that can live with us.
“We’ve just got to keep that team spirit high for those final games and be positive.
“We’ve got a lot of character in the squad and we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure that this disappointment doesn’t affect us.”
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7 Comments
we are not a million miles away because we competed against portsmouth hahaha
i suppose barnsley are going to finish above liverpool and chelsea next year… dream on phillips, you played ok but still didn’t have one shot on target…
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1. Erm, what about the shot from Gera in the first half, or were your gold and muck blinkers getting in the way?
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wow, you passed the ball around first half, pity you didn’t do that in the box, but you need class for that..
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Beat Blackpool tomorrow and we are back on cause to win the league.Dingles wont even make the playoffs
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frankthegas..beat blackpool you cant beat a drum boring,boring
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Compared with the class of Nugent, Baros and Kanu?!!! We were the better team but didn’t do enough to win - however we didn’t deserve to lose either. So Pompey Kings don’t come on here giving it the big one that you’re some sort of Champions League elite! You were fortunate to progress through to the final on that performance and you know it – hardly a goal worth claiming attacking talent for! However, you did go though and that’s football.
Good luck to you in the final - just lose the arrogance, it doesn’t suit a club like yourselves….you’re better than that.
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More witty, rapier like comments from Dingles I see.
3 Pompey Kings.
It seems you also need a hand and a compliant official.
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