Chris Brunt: West Brom need to show same attitude for rest of season

The Baggies came from behind with ten men to earn a point against Sheffield Wednesday in the fifth minute of injury time to extend their unbeaten run to nine games.

And Brunt, who scrambled the ball home from a corner at the back post, says the Baggies need to continue showing that level of endeavour.

“If you’re going to be successful in this league you’ve got to do that,” he said. “Look at Norwich and Leeds last week. Scoring two goals in injury time each of them.

“It’s important to keep playing right to the last whistle. We’ve done that, even when we got the equaliser we had a half a go to try and win the game with ten men.

“Credit to everyone out there, they rolled their sleeves up and just got on with it.

“That’s the sort of attitude we’ll have to have in the second half of the season because it’s a long hard slog in the Championship.”

Some outlets gave the equaliser as an own goal, but Brunt insists it was his first of the season, and his first since January 2017.

“It will be decided by someone else, but if you asked David Jones he’d probably rather it was my goal than an own goal by him,” said Brunt.

“I thought I got something on it which is why I celebrated the way I did. I wouldn’t have celebrated like that if I hadn’t have touched it.

“It was an important goal because it would’ve been disappointing to come away with nothing.

“We played alright in the game, especially second half. We created a few chances and couldn’t break them down.

“To be fair to them they defended really well. Obviously Lee Bullen has taken over (as caretaker boss) and that’s seven points from nine they’ve taken so they’re on a decent run of form.

“It was important for us not lose the unbeaten run we’ve got going. Hopefully we can keep that going on Tuesday as well.”

Brunt’s goal ensured that Albion had scored in every home league game of 2018, and it was a statistic which surprised the club captain.

“Even in the first half of the year? Really? I didn’t know that,” he said.

“I wouldn’t have believed that if you hadn’t have told me, not from the Premier League stats to be totally honest.

“It’s good that we’re capable of scoring goals. It shows more about the resilience and the character we’ve got in the dressing room.”

The major talking point from the game was Jay Rodriguez’s straight red card for an alleged stamp on Marco Matias.

Albion have appealed, and hope to hear a verdict from the Football Association on Monday night in time for their trip to Blackburn Rovers on New Year’s Day.

“I don’t think anyone’s seen it bar the linesman,” said Brunt. “I’ve seen a video of it back in the dressing room and it looks pretty soft to me. It doesn’t look like he stamped on the kid at all.

“Whether it gets turned over or not we’ll wait and see. Jay’s definitely not that sort of lad and wouldn’t do that to anybody.

“That was disappointing but credit to everyone on the pitch, we dug in, pushed on, tried to get a result and we did that.”