Paul Scharner wants West Brom to move on up

West Brom match-winner Paul Scharner today urged the Baggies to aim high and leave Premier League relegation scraps behind them.

The midfielder celebrated his winning goal in last night's thriller at Newcastle by challenging Roy Hodgson's side to move beyond simply scrapping for top-flight survival.

The Baggies ensured a top-half placing at Christmas when Scharner's 85th-minute goal sealed a 3-2 win and lifted them to 10th in the table.

And the Austria international believes West Brom can keep climbing – and push in-form leaders Manchester City all the way at the Hawthorns on Boxing Day.

He said: "Last night was brilliant, but I said after beating Blackburn that we need to stop concentrating on beating relegation. I think we are better than that.

"It doesn't matter which place we're in, our team and the way we have performed in the last four or five games now is better than relegation.

"We have a great spirit, everybody fought to the end last night and I think we deserved the win.

"Congratulations to the boys because they did everything to get the three points and it's brilliant to get back-to-back away wins.

"It was a great win last night. When you take the lead three times you hope to win the game and when you score three goals away you deserve to win."

The Baggies' final match of 2011 sees a flying City side visit the Hawthorns looking to follow up last night's 3-0 win over Stoke.

Scharner said: "It's the next game, so we have to celebrate this win and then we can concentrate on Manchester City. We know that in football nothing is impossible."

The 31-year-old celebrated his second goal of the season after he netted a neat 85th-minute half-volley following a cross by Shane Long and a clever knock-down from Peter Odemwingie.

But Scharner admitted he only just managed to make up the ground to keep up with the pacy strike duo.

He said: "It's very hard to keep up with Shane because he is very quick.

"But I tried really hard to get into the box and I was really happy that Peter and Shane assisted me."