West Brom's Chris Brunt reflects on intensity of interim period

Baggies legend Brunt was thrust into the scenario alongside Damia Abella - a coach under former boss Carlos Corberan - and Boaz Myhill after they answered an SOS call on Christmas Eve.

Corberan had signed off with a win over Bristol City on December 22 before departing for Valencia, but the interim team then had to negotiate four games in 10 days in an exhausting period.

Albion started the current week with a few days off after the draw at Swansea before Brunt and co. led preparations for Saturday's FA Cup tie at Bournemouth - which is set to be the caretakers' sign-off as owners Bilkul work on the final stage of an appointment.

Former Northern Ireland international and hero of more than 400 Baggies games Brunt, 40, admits being back around a first-team environment was like a throwback to his playing days. The pressures of dealing with other aspects, even in a temporary role, have been a strain though.

"It's a very unusual scenario the manager would leave on Christmas Eve but...you just sort of run with it and we have," Brunt said.

"It's turned a few things on their heads over Christmas but hopefully the club will make the right appointment and I'll get on with my job. Football is an environment like no other, it's probably the only one in the world where that will happen.

"I'm inexperienced in all of this, even the travel to and from games is not in my make-up anymore, so getting used to that again has been a bit of a challenge. It's mentally draining thinking about stuff, credit to every member of staff for supporting each other. It has been a draining few weeks but we've had good performances in the games and good intensity and desire to try to win games.

"It's not been great (sleep). The first few nights were a bit of a blur, if I was getting three or four hours I was happy. That was the initial shock of it all and getting used to it again.

"The last time I was involved in Christmas (playing) was Darren Moore, 2018, Slaven Bilic actually gave me a couple of days off at Christmas when I wasn't involved. If it is the last game tomorrow hopefully it's a decent result."

Brunt, whose normal role is loans manager with some academy coaching, looks to finish in style with Saturday's testing third round tie at Bournemouth where the hosts are clear favourites.

He recalled a saying of former Albion boss Tony Pulis when it comes to avoiding negative FA Cup headlines.

"You see it all the time, look at Tamworth, it throws up mad results," added Brunt. "I don't remember being on the end of too many here as a player. I always remember what Tony Pulis said 'make sure you're not on the front page and that you're a small quarter on the back pages in the FA Cup'.

"That's always stuck with me. He's right, you don't want to be knocked out by teams below."

While Spaniard Abella has largely overseen tactics and training sessions, Brunt has tried to put his stamp on some pre-match instructions, though he admitted it is a different game to a previous era.

He said: "The game's different, it's not what it used to be, you can't tell them to run around and try hard and everything will be alright. Players are clever, there is so much analysis. They know their jobs really well, Carlos and his staff had them drilled for every scenario.

"Sometimes you need that mentality, I'm not going to lose this match or this battle. If you give your best what more can you ask? I've tried to pass that message on."

Though Brunt was required for training this week. He smiled: "I even had to join in a session the other day because we were a body down!

"For two days I couldn't walk after. I'm used to joining in with the under-18s but then I have to join in with the first team, so mentally, physically, back, hips, legs, gone! Being in a position to help when I could was good for everybody, I'm glad we got some results."