McAuley wants West Brom to finish well

West Brom defender Gareth McAuley wants to add a silver lining to a 'frustrating' season with victory over Liverpool on Sunday.

When the Baggies beat Manchester United at the start of March, McAuley and his team-mates were in high spirits and setting their sights on the club's record Premier League points tally of 49.

Fast forward two months and eight matches without a win, the Northern Irish centre-back is just hoping to finish on a high note after a disappointing run of results.

Wen he was asked to sum up the season, McAuley admitted: "We're a little bit frustrated.

"We feel as a group we could have done better. We're disappointed with some of the performances."

Jurgen Klopp has turned Liverpool into a formidable force in the second half of the season and the Reds have only lost two of their last 12 league games.

But Klopp's team will be playing in the Europa League final three days later and, with a spot in the Champions League up for grabs, he doesn't expect the German to name a full-strength team.

The 36-year-old said: "Liverpool will be a tough game, they're flying at the minute. They might make a few changes with the cup final a few days later.

"We'll see what team they bring, but we'll certainly have a good go at trying to win it."

McAuley may be the club's oldest outfield player to feature in the Premier League, but he shows no sign of letting up soon.

Sunday's game will be his 39th appearance of the season and the club have already agreed to extend his contract for another 12 months.

McAuley has been at the Hawthorns for five seasons and seen five different managers at the club in that time.

Boss Tony Pulis came to Albion renowned for his organisational skills and McAuley confirmed the Welshman is a drill-sergeant on the training ground.

But he reckons that has helped the Baggies become difficult to play against. McAuley said: "He's good. He's tough and a task-master.

"Right from when he came in, he wanted us to be hard to beat. He doesn't like conceding goals. We work on both aspects and patterns of play in training every week. Every game is different.

"(Against Bournemouth) we wanted to be compact and tight and play counter-attacking football.

"We knew they would leave themselves open with expansive football and full-backs pushed high up the pitch."

Albion have only scored three goals in their last eight games and, as if to emphasise their woes in front of goal, they've managed to have three penalties saved during that run.

That needs to be addressed this summer, but McAuley knows that Pulis expects his big defenders to also chip in from set-pieces.

The Northern Irishman has 10 career goals for Albion. In fact, the only current squad members who have scored more for the club are Saido Berahino, Chris Brunt, James Morrison and Jonas Olsson.

He reckons he should have helped his forwards out a bit more this season. He admitted: "Goals win games and we'd all like to score more goals.

"I've only got one goal this season which is disappointing. It's an area we can improve in."