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Alan Irvine ready for his Everton reunion

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West Brom boss Alan Irvine has spent more than a decade of his life at Everton.

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But tomorrow he needs to beat the club closest to his heart to kick-start his new adventure at Albion.

And the Baggies boss insists the need for points will override any emotion he feels towards the Toffees when he comes up against them for the first time.

Irvine played for the Goodison Park club for three years, assisted David Moyes with the first team for more than five and spent another three in charge of their academy before joining Albion as head coach this summer.

But tomorrow he has just one thing on his mind – and it involves disappointing his former employers.

"It's a nice day for me, without a doubt," said Irvine. "But that isn't the most important thing.

"The most important thing is the game itself, but from a personal point of view it's a chance to compete against a club which is special to me.

"It would be lovely to get the win, that's for sure.

"It doesn't make it any more special that it's Everton – far from it.

"But I am keen to win – not because it's Everton but just because we need to get winning soon.

"I know Everton's players and I've watched them play in many games at Goodison Park although I haven't seen them play away from home because that wasn't my job.

"But I have seen what a good team they are and I know how good they are in terms of their passing and movement.

"I know how good the individuals are in terms of their passing and movement.

"But knowing about them and stopping them are two very different things."

Irvine is without a win in his three Premier League games at the Hawthorns helm with his side's last outing, a 2-0 defeat at Swansea, brought their worst display of his short reign so far.

They have registered just four shots on target in three games so far, with many of Irvine's attacking summer signings striving for fitness.

He insists his squad have worked on unlocking opponents but admits they are still a long way from his ideal set-up.

"We do a lot of work on attacking and we do individual finishing work after every session," said Irvine, who has worked with a skeleton squad during the two-week international break.

"Most of our work is based on what we're going to do and what how we're going to play when we have possession.

"But scoring goals can be difficult, especially if you don't have all of your attacking options available, and it's no secret we were looking for wide players and front players to give us variety and options in terms of the way we set out to play.

"Those are the players that came in much later rather than the ones at the back.

"I'm a purist and I'd love us to play the best football in the league and be the best attacking force in the league, but we've got some work to do to get to that point.

"Everybody thinks you can get a lot of work done during that international break but from a team point of view you can't."

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