Darren Moore and West Brom players ignoring the table
Darren Moore and his players are refusing to look at the Championship table this early in the season – despite Albion’s promising position.
The Baggies enter the weekend in third place, just one point behind early pacesetters Leeds United and Middlesbrough.
They face a trip to bottom club Preston North End tomorrow, but are refusing to take anything for granted.
And considering it is just nine games into the season, the league’s top scorers are wary of getting too carried away.
“I don't look at the table,” said Darren Moore. “Not at all. I'm just focusing on the next game. At this stage of the season I don't bother looking at it. It's one game at a time, and I mean that.”
Just four points separate the top 12 in the Championship, and with three games coming up in the next eight days, there will be plenty of clubs climbing and falling before the international break.
"Maybe at Christmas we will have a little peak and see if we are top,” said defender Kyle Bartley. “Everything is so tight at the moment. There is no point in getting carried away at this stage.
“We are not the finished article by any means, there is a lot of work to be done, but we are going in the right direction.”
The Baggies kept their first clean sheet in the league last weekend when they beat Millwall 2-0 at home, but Bartley is aware that Moore’s attacking system won’t always allow for shut-outs.
“Clean sheets are a great bonus,” said Bartley. “As a defender, that’s what we aim for. But I think you can see in this team, we are there to score goals.
“We do sacrifice a little bit defensively in order to be a threat upfront but we are happy to get that clean sheet.”
The summer signing has become a regular on the left hand side of the back three, but he waved away suggestions he’d been given the short straw.
“Being on the left hand side is a little different and it’s difficult, but we’ve done a lot of work to try and improve that,” he said. “Wherever I’m asked to play, I’ll get on with it.
"I’ll never make anything of it or moan or be frustrated. It’s all about the team. I am fine to play there and I think I’m improving as the season goes on.
“There is not going to be much said about it. It’s just me asking for little tips and some extra work on the training ground so I can improve myself so I can improve the team.”
