Chris Brunt has seen it all at West Brom

Utility man Chris Brunt has just about seen it all at West Brom.

Now, after the highs and lows of the last few seasons, he eckons Tony Pulis can bring back the good times thanks to a return to Roy Hodgson's blueprint.

After a season and a half of struggle with the demise of Steve Clarke, the bizarre experiment with Pepe Mel and the ill-fated flirtation with Alan Irvine, Pulis was brought in to right the wrongs.

After stamping his authority on the club in no uncertain terms, the head coach has restored some faith in a squad that had lost its way.

And Brunt agrees the methods employed by the Welshman are similar to those used so successfully by current England boss Hodgson.

The Northern Ireland international said: "It's pretty similar. With the way he conducts the training sessions there is a lot of tactical work and Roy did similar things.

"For a club like ours, when you don't have a £25million or £30m player who you can just give the ball to and say 'get on with it', we have to rely on everybody doing their jobs and want to do it for each other.

"Since the gaffer has come in he has tried to instil that in everybody. He has got us doing it as a team and wanting to do jobs for the team.

"He is really good at getting people to do jobs that maybe they would have been uncomfortable doing before, or taking them out of their comfort zone.

"As a coach, that's a good quality. Stability is probably the best way of describing it. We have a lot of respect for Alan Irvine.

"He is a great coach and a good man, as well, but things just never fell into place for him. The gaffer came in and stamped his authority and told us what he wants from us.

"He did it at Stoke for a few years, did it at Crystal Palace and now he's come in and done the exact same thing with us. There are no grey areas. Everybody knows what their job is.

"It's difficult to play in at times because it is a lot of hard work, but we saw at the end of the season some of the results we were capable of getting as a team."

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Now Hawthorns stalwart Brunt is looking forward to next season, with optimism in the hope the Baggies can carry forward the momentum they created at the end of last season.

He said: "With the way we ended last season everybody was happy enough.

"When you look at the fixture list for this season you know you're going to have to work hard in every game to get something out of it.

"That's just the standard of the league. It's an achievement to stay in the league for so long.

"The last couple of seasons have been a bit less comfortable than we would have liked, but it's an achievement in itself to stay up for a club of this size and it's nice to be a part of that.

"A few lads have been around for a few years and when we look back on our career over the last few seasons we will take pride at being a part of that."

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