West Brom’s ‘top performance’ secures important win over Preston

Interim manager James Morrison was delighted to continue West Brom’s fight against relegation with a 2-0 victory over Preston at Deepdale.

Josh Maja showed great composure in the 11th minute to strike the Baggies ahead and Daryl Dike came off the bench to seal the game with a decisive 77th-minute finish.

Morrison’s reign – one defeat in nine matches – is in stark contrast to that of former manager Eric Ramsay, who failed to win any of the eight Championship fixtures he was in charge for.

The 39-year-old has orchestrated a remarkable turnaround in form with this result extending their unbeaten run to eight matches and leaving them five points clear of the relegation zone.

“I thought it was a top performance,” he said. “The goals came at the right times in the end. The first one was when we started really well.

“We got our rewards with a good bit of play and a great finish and then we controlled the game really well without being overstretched. When we had to defend the box, we defended it really well.”

Morrison was particularly complimentary about his strike-force, with two clinical finishes sealing the deal for Albion.

He said: “I always feel confident with Josh that if he gets a chance, he will score, and then Daryl’s performances have been really good.

“He’s just been unlucky at times with chances that he’s had but that tops (his) hard work so I’m delighted with him because he’s an important part of the group.”

The result comes with the possibility of a points deduction hanging over Albion’s heads and Morrison says he is trying his best to block out the noise.

“We’ve just got to continue to do our job really,” he added. “If we get our results, we’ve done what we can do. At the end of the day, we’ve got no control over it.”

Paul Heckingbottom was furious with his team’s first-half display and overall performance in their defeat.

The Lilywhites had turned a bit of a corner in terms of form, having picked up eight points from a possible 12 coming off the back of five defeats in six.

But they were generally second-best against a team fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table and the Preston boss pulled no punches.

“Really disappointing today,” he said. “One of the worst (performances of the season). If you get outfought like that (in the first half), that cannot happen. You can get beat but not like that.

“I’m not taking anything away from West Brom. They’ve got good players, a good squad and we’ve got no right to beat them but I expected us to turn up and compete.

“One of the two disappointments was the fact we were outfought in the first half and the fact that everything we prepared for, we didn’t execute.

“Sometimes, if you can’t give the players a solution then you’re culpable but we knew what we were going to face and for some reason we didn’t do well.”