Darren Moore: West Brom family must now unite

Moore has been handed the reins for the last six games of the season after Pardew and his assistant John Carver left the club by mutual consent on Easter Monday.

The 43-year-old, who won promotion with Albion as a fan favourite centre-back during his playing days, will be in the hot seat for Saturday’s home game against Swansea City.

He is due to meet the players as caretaker boss for the first time today, and will deliver to them this emotional and rousing message.

“West Bromwich Albion has always been a family for me,” said Moore. "And that’s the word I shall focus on ­- family.

“We need to get the unity back among everyone ­- the players, the staff, the fans, everyone connected with Albion, because that is the only way forward.

“I felt the pain on Saturday just like everyone. It’s their club and it’s their passion and love for it which makes it so painful at the moment.

“But let’s get that unity back. We’ve had tough days before and we’ve always bounced back and that’s what we will do again.”

Albion fell to their ninth straight defeat on Saturday and it led to Pardew finally leaving the club after a disastrous four-month reign.

He met with the board on Monday morning and agreed to leave by mutual consent after taking the club to the brink of relegation.

Moore was promoted to first team coach by Pardew, and admitted to having mixed feelings about stepping into his former boss’s shoes.

“These are never happy days at a club and it’s never nice to see people leave their jobs,” added Moore.

“Alan and John showed faith in me and gave me the chance to work at first-team coach level for which I will always be grateful.

“It’s a brutal business at times and unfortunately the results just haven’t gone for us.

“But now all I can do is do everything in my power to focus the team for Swansea on Saturday.

"That’s all I’m thinking about and everything will be geared to getting the preparation as right as possible to give us our best chance of a positive performance.”

Moore will become the fourth person to take charge of the Baggies this season after Tony Pulis, Gary Megson, and Pardew.

Albion are 10 points from safety with just six games remaining.