Darren Moore: No added incentive from history with Dean Smith

Moore will go head-to-head against Dean Smith at The Hawthorns, the man he pipped to the Albion job in the summer.

But the Baggies boss says that match-up doesn’t add any spice to what is already a red-hot fixture.

“I’m competitive in every game,” he said, when asked if he wanted to prove himself against Smith. “I have a desire to win every game. That’s why we’re in this.

“It’s no different on Friday. There’s more focus on the game because it’s two Midlands clubs competing and we’re both scoring lots of goals.

“On a personal level, my job is to be competitive and work hard for the club.

“We’re in an industry where the goal is to win. It’s about competing every single week.”

Moore worked closely with Smith when the Villa boss was at Walsall and the current Albion head coach looked after the Baggies’ young loanees.

And the Albion head coach has plenty of respect for tonight’s counterpart.

“As players I don’t think we really came across each other much,” he said. “That would have been an interesting contest at the far post! We have a mutual respect for one another.

“He used to be manager at Walsall and with the roles I played at Albion, he used to come and watch a lot of our games.

“We had a real closeness and built up a rapport with him and (assistant) Richard (O’Kelly).

“They’re two really good guys in the game. Really straight-talking, good people. Whenever you see good people in the game you want them to do well.”

Villa have had two extra days to prepare for tonight’s derby after Albion’s game with Brentford was moved to Monday to be shown live on Sky.

But Moore refused to complain about the unkind scheduling.

“It is what it is,” he shrugged. “I can’t cry over spilled milk in terms of the fixture list. Me commenting on that isn’t going to change anything. We’ll just get on with it.”