Koren pays tribute to marksman

Albion midfielder Robert Koren today saluted Kevin Phillips’ ‘amazing’ form and confirmed he wants the evergreen striker signed up for next season.

See also: Blackpool 1 West Brom 3 - in pictures

Koren refused to be dragged into the contract wrangle that is holding up a potential new deal for the 34-year-old forward.

But the Slovenian international admitted he is keen to see the problems resolved and Phillips on board for the 2008-09 campaign.

And he echoed team-mate Paul Robinson’s claim that Phillips can play on beyond next season.

Phillips refused requests for interviews after scoring two goals at Blackpool last night, but Koren said: “Everybody who watches us can see that Kevin is in amazing form.

“He is doing well for the team, but what happens with the future is his and the club’s decision.”We can’t do anything about that but hopefully he will stay at the club.

“We would be stronger with him next year so hopefully I will sign a contract. He is really professional and sometimes in training we see amazing things from him.

“Sometimes you ask yourself whether he is really that old.

“I think he still has a couple of years in his body and he is really professional in the way he cares about his body.

“He has been in brilliant form this year, so hopefully he will stay away from injuries and I hope he stays at the club for more than one year.”

Koren was also full of praise for another striker, Ishmael Miller, after he created a goal for Phillips then scored himself with brilliant strike from Koren’s superb pass at Bloomfield Road.

“We all know what kind of quality Ish has and he was waiting all game to get good passes,” said Koren.

“At the beginning it was difficult to give him good passes because Blackpool were really compact and we couldn’t get balls through.

“But we know that when he is focussed and he gets the right balls he is always dangerous and capable of scoring goals

“He showed he is a really good player and hopefully he will do the same in the next few games.”