Debut delight for Barnes

New-boy Giles Barnes today thanked Albion fans for welcoming him to The Hawthorns after he returned from a 15-month lay-off with his Baggies debut.

Barnes made his Albion bow with a seven-minute outing in last night's 1-0 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday – his first senior action since playing for Derby in January 2009.

His appearance was greeted rapturously by the Hawthorns faithful.

And the 21-year-old, who helped the Rams beat Albion in the 2007 Championship play-off final, said: "It was great.

"I wasn't too sure how it was going to be with the Derby connection and me going up a couple of years ago, but they were fantastic.

"The night was fantastic. When my name was read out the West Brom fans gave me a fantastic reception and that was nice to hear.

"Being around the environment of playing football was nice for me and getting my debut at home was another good thing.

"It's been a long time since I last played so I was very happy just to get the little bit of times I did.

"A lot of thanks goes to the medical team and the management.

"You always think that you need to get on the pitch in a first team game to feel part of it.

"I have played a couple of reserve games but there is nothing like playing a first team game and hopefully I can build from here.

"When you come on in the last 10 minutes the game is always firing, especially because we had just gone 1-0 up and they were just launching it.

"The main thing was to come on and be secure and it was good to get the win."

And Barnes believes last night's win will give the Baggies a massive shot in the arm ahead of the final 11 games of their promotion campaign.

"The win was massive and we needed it," he said. "It was a scrappy win as well, which the lads have said we've been missing.

"We always play great football but if we can now start winning scrappy games there are no better teams than us in the league."