West Brom duo are given a licence to thrill

West Brom boss Alan Irvine will give Brown Ideye and Silvestre Varela licence to thrill over the festive period.

Albion begin the hectic schedule with a trip to QPR on Saturday and both players will be hoping to keep their places after playing the full 90 minutes in last weekend's 1-0 win against Villa.

It was winger Varela's first start since joining on a season-long loan from Porto in the summer, while it was just a third Premier League start for club record signing Ideye.

Head coach Irvine is delighted both have shaken off the injuries which hampered their opening months at the Hawthorns and thinks they have a significant part to play in the games ahead.

He said: "I wish we'd been able to get them out there a couple of months earlier, but that was always going to be a difficult task.

"It was made all the more difficult by the injuries that both of them picked up along the way. It was great to get them out there and it was like having two new players.

"They're a couple of players that suddenly we know we can put in and they will play a significant part over these coming games."

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Ideye has scored just once for Albion so far but Irvine believes, with more games, the Nigerian international can begin to justify his hefty price tag.

Irvine said: "He does need games and obviously this is a great time for him to be doing it. He's going to get his games. It's really important that he was back to where he needs to be.

"The signs were that he'd started scoring goals again in training on a regular basis. He went through a period where he couldn't score for weeks in training, but now he is.

"It's that little bit of sharpness and him being quick enough to get into positions and be composed when he's making that finish.

"He's in a much better place. He just really wants a goal to come."