Albion boss Alan Irvine: Fans should lay off West Brom
West Brom boss Alan Irvine admits he cannot make demands of his Hawthorns critics – but he has called on the fans to lay off the team when they take on West Ham tomorrow.
The Albion head coach admitted he was hurt by boos and chants of "you don't know what you're doing" when he replaced Stephane Sessegnon in Saturday's 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal.
Irvine's side are back on home turf tomorrow and the Scot admitted: "I can't tell them they have to be patient.
"I'd like them to bear with us but I can't demand that. It's up to them how they want to react and behave when they come to the games.
"We're working as hard as we can to get results. I'm not a negative coach, I'm a purist, I want us to attack, but I have to be realistic.
"It hurts. I'd be telling lies if I said it didn't sting. I made a decision that I thought might get us back into the game and it nearly worked.
"We were more dangerous in that last period of the game. It could have worked and people might have been feeling differently about it then.
"I can get just as frustrated as the fans can when these things don't come off. The players are working hard.
"The fans are our supporters, we're hoping they will be there to support us.
"I know that it works both ways and we've got to give the fans things to cheer about.
"In the difficult times we probably could do with our fans being exactly that – our supporters.
"They want exactly the same as we all want. We all want to win games.
"We have a better chance of winning games if we're all together, the fans, the players, the whole club."
And Irvine again hit out at suggestions he is a cautious coach.
"We have to work as a team," he said.
"We don't have lots of individuals who can do something on their own.
"Our work has been about going forward, the majority of our sessions about going forward.
"We go into every game with a plan of how we're going to attack as well as how we need to defend."
