West Bromwich Albion boss Slaven Bilic has praised his side’s impressive performance against Preston North End in an interview with the Express & Star in which they ran out 2-0 winners in a rather one-sided encounter.
The Baggies have now won five of their last six games and are unbeaten in that time which has included matches against their promotion rivals.
West Brom have a seven-point lead over second-placed Leeds United whilst they are also ten points clear of third-placed Nottingham Forest and Bilic was quick to praise his players for their effort in the 2-0 victory over Preston.
“Yes, I am delighted, Preston was a very mature performance, we were in control and played on the front foot,” Bilic said.
“We knew who we were playing against a team that is usually very intense, maybe the team that is the best at transition. I admire Alex Neil, his work and the way they play. They play on the front foot and are a very, very good team.”
“But we stopped them. We did to them what they were planning to do to us. Intensity, pressing, second balls and those balls that we won gave us the platform to get balls into the box and catch them on transition.”
“That gave us a lot of situations to attack their back four with a pack of players and they couldn’t cope with that. When we had that our difference in class was visible. Throughout the whole game we were on them. That is the thing that pleases me the most.
“It’s not only this game. It’s been for more than a few games now.”
Although 2-0 isn’t a huge scoreline, it was rather more comfortable that it suggests on Tuesday evening. Preston supporters made the journey to the Midlands and saw their side fail to register a single shot on target against the league leaders which is what will disappoint the Lilywhites the most.
