Liam Ridgewell backing West Brom to last pace

Ridgewell believes the Baggies deserve even more points than the 17 that have put them fifth in the Premier League after 10 matches.

But the left-back reckons Steve Clarke's men have work to do to convince the country that they can last the course.

"I think we deserve to be where we are," said Ridgewell. "In fact I think we deserve to have even more points, to be honest.

"We've done really well but the main thing is to keep that going and show people it's not just a good start of the season.

"We are going into a lot of games now with the Christmas period coming up and we've got to try to keep it going and picking up points."

But Ridgewell believes Monday's victory over Southampton was a major result for the Baggies after successive cruel defeats to Manchester City and Newcastle.

"If we'd lost people would have started saying it was a fluke start to the season, blah, blah, blah," he said.

"But we know what we're all about and we know we're a good team and hopefully we can keep showing that.

"We are sitting fifth and doing very well but we know our objective at the start of the season was to stay in this league and that is still our objective now.

"Whatever comes after that is a bonus but we will look to keep it going.

"Monday was a very big game because it was probably the biggest test for the new team after Roy.

"I thought we did it very well and came through very solidly.

"We didn't really feel lots of pressure.

"Pressure is playing against Manchester United at Old Trafford when you're second from bottom in the league.

"But Monday was a night when we just had to make sure we did the right things, start well and get the first goal and make sure they didn't come back at us."

Albion striker Shane Long has, meanwhile, been added to the Ireland squad to face Greece on November 14 after proving his fitness on Monday.