Roberto Di Matteo today claimed Albion’s defenders have inherited his Italian meanness – but told his team they can still get better.

The Hawthorns head coach is demanding further improvement from his defenders despite the Baggies conceding just four times in their last seven matches.

And he revealed he was upset by the concession of late goals in the victories over Leicester and Bristol City.

But Di Matteo, whose homeland is famous for producing no-nonsense stoppers, reckons hours of practice on the training ground has started paying off for his team.

“Conceding goals annoys you a bit,” said Di Matteo. “Saturday was a great performance and result but 4-0 looks better than 4-1.

“I’ll happily take one goal against us if we’re 4-0 up but in general we want to keep clean sheets because it gives you a good platform to win games.

“Our last two goals against have been free-kicks and Saturday’s was a great execution by their player but it still annoys me because I love clean sheets.”

However, Di Matteo believes Albion are making progress after Tony Mowbray’s Hawthorns reign was undermined by brittle defending.

“The key has been hard work, practice and a bit of Italian mentality,” said Di Matteo.

“It annoys me when we concede a goal and we are still working on it. Slowly it’s paying dividends a bit but we’re still not good enough.”

“Left-back Joe Mattock, who has played a key role in the defensive improvement, remains touch and go for Saturday’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday despite a positive bulletin on his foot injury.

Roman Bednar missed training again yesterday after spending the weekend laid low by illness and it is unclear when the Czech striker striker will return.