Slaven Bilic hails 'important' West Brom victory over Sheffield Wednesday

In a bruising encounter at The Hawthorns, Bilic’s side opened the scoring in the first-half thanks to Hal Robson-Kanu’s fourth goal in six matches.

But they were pegged back after the interval when Filip Krovinovic fouled Kieran Lee in the box with Steven Fletcher then scoring from the penalty spot.

From that point on the game could have gone either way.

But the Baggies won it right at the end when Charlie Austin scored from the spot after Matheus Pereira had been fouled.

And Bilic hailed the result as an “important victory” with the boss having been impressed by Wednesday this season.

“I consider that a ‘derby’ game because I really rate their team,” Bilic said.

“They play on the front foot, they’re aggressive, they engage.

“They don’t have kids, they’re physical, with enough quality.

“You can make games easier or harder for you, but on paper, this was one of the toughest games.

“They’re extremely difficult to play against, so it’s a great win for us.

“It wasn’t easy for us. I was pleased, though, with how we organised the attacks. We didn’t create clear cut chances, but many times we were on the edge of the box trying to walk it in instead of trying a strike from 15 yards. It was good.”

Albion grabbed their late goal after Austin, Gareth Barry and Chris Brunt had all been introduced from the bench.

And with tiring legs, Bilic felt those changes were key.

“Second half they (Wednesday) stepped it up a little bit and then, unfortunately, we gave them a penalty, we made a mistake,” the head coach continued.

“They were physically good. They were winning those second balls and they were much more present with a number of players in our part of the pitch.

“We needed players from the bench, some of the players had run out of steam because they’d done the job.

“We got it, we got it and scored the goal. It was a massively important win for us.”

With Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers suspended, Bilic opted to move Semi Ajayi into central midfield where he was partnered by Krovinovic.

And the head coach was pleased with both of them.

On Ajayi he said: “I put Semi there because he has played there (for Rotherham),” Bilic said.

“I spoke to him, I told him what we expect. They play direct, they are very physical.

“I think he played really well. It’s a big plus for him in that position.

To be fair, put it this way, if we needed him again in that position I wouldn’t blink. He was very good, very good.”

On Krovinovic and the penalty, Bilic felt his countryman was unlucky not to win a free-kick before he committed the foul - with Lee going through the ball of him to win the ball.

“Filip was one of our best players in the first-half,” Bilic added.

He was organising everything. He was avoiding the press. He was the one feeding Hal (Robson-Kanu), (Matheus) Pereira, Matt (Phillips), Grady (Diangana) with those balls.

“The penalty, it’s a mistake - of course, it is a mistake.

“To be fair, I thought the referee was good. But it’s a push from behind.

“If you are concentrating on the ball and you are in motion and then a challenge comes in from behind, for me, that can be a foul. Especially there.

“But it was a mistake because we had the ball.

“Pereira had the ball. He passed it to Conor (Townsend). Maybe Conor should have played that ball forward because it’s now in front of our goal.

“Maybe he should have passed it forward because they were engaged.

“Filip was not in a great position. His back was facing their goal It was a bad mistake, of course.”