Matt Maher: Modest James Morrison has done remarkable work at West Brom

Sat in the press room at Pride Park on Wednesday night, Albion’s head coach had just been told his team were top of the Championship and the response was exactly what you expected.

Morrison is not the type to get carried away, even when circumstances might permit it.

So while there are obviously worse places to be than top of the table, it really doesn’t mean much just six matches into a marathon campaign.

On the other hand, the result which put the Baggies there still felt something to celebrate. Even the usually understated Morrison conceded the 1-0 win over Derby - just the club’s fourth in total on the road against the Rams since 1919, achieved after playing most of the night with 10 men - ranked among the proudest moments of his career.

It’s impossible to know how the rest of this season might pan out for Albion.

What we can say is, in the space of just 18 Championship matches, Morrison has transformed a club which appeared on the brink of tearing itself apart into one which believes again.

There are probably stronger teams and certainly squads with greater depth than the Baggies.

You’d have to go a long way, though, to find one which currently feels more united. The scenes in front of 3,000 travelling supporters after the final whistle on Wednesday night were testament to that. There’s talent too, to go with the grit.

All of it is thanks to Morrison. Much as you strongly suspect he will not welcome the praise, it really is time to stand back and reflect on the remarkable start he has made to life in management.

Back in early March, when he was appointed until the end of the season to replace the sacked Eric Ramsay, who had replaced the sacked Ryan Mason, who had replaced the sacked Tony Mowbray, it felt like one last roll of the dice for an ownership which had made bad decision after bad decision since Carlos Corberan’s abrupt exit on Christmas Eve, 2024.

Yet whether Bilkul saw something in Morrison which suggested he might be the man to dig them out of the mire, or whether they simply stumbled upon him, it has proven comfortably their best call to date.

If you were being cynical, you might question how the much-lauded data upon which they claim to base much of their strategy, failed for so long to spot the very talented coach sitting right under their noses?

But this is supposed to be a positive piece, so let’s park that scrutiny for another day.

No doubt, in time, we will learn what happened in the four days between the 2-1 defeat at Oxford and Morrison being appointed until the end of last season.

Heading into Oxford, he had taken the job on a game-to-game basis. The club were still considering another external appointment. Morrison’s scathing assessment of the performance and result carried the air of a man who did not expect to be in the hotseat for long.

And yet he did remain and now six months on, is growing stronger. In that time, Albion have been beaten only twice in the league - one of those an end-of-season dead rubber after survival had been secured. They have kept nine clean sheets, an average of one every other game. A team which in the darkest days of last season always found a way to lose, now refuses to be beaten.

This season is young but the start has been encouraging. Morrison knew the job had changed when he was given it on a permanent basis at the end of April and spent part of the summer researching previous examples of interim-turned-permanent bosses, to try and work out why they succeeded or failed.

Such attention to detail would be easy to miss due to his matter-of-fact, quiet manner.

Yet beneath the modest exterior, there is plenty of savvy. Morrison knew he had much to learn - knows he still does - and has tried to fill the gaps in his experience and knowledge with the staff around him. The recruitment - and retention - of Matt Gill should not be overlooked.

Most important of all is the relationship with his players. They like him and trust him. All the evidence you are seeing on the pitch, tells you they believe in the message. This is a young team, lacking in fear. Just at this moment, you would say they are the perfect reflection of their manager.

Morrison has made it look easy when in reality it has been anything of the sort.

It took three matches for him to get his first win, while he also kept his head during the uncertainty over the club’s breach of EFL profit and sustainability rules. The subsequent two-point deduction led to him achieving the rare feat of helping Albion avoid relegation not once but twice.

Undoubtedly, there will be tough times ahead. Morrison knows they are coming. Even this week he was explaining how the better things are going, the more nervous he becomes. How Morrison deals with his first tough run of results - an inevitability in a division like the Championship - will tell us even more about his capabilities.

All you can say is to this point, he has barely put a foot wrong.