Darren Moore delighted with West Brom's battling victory at rivals Aston Villa
Darren Moore was delighted with his Albion side's battling team performance in their derby-day victory at Villa Park.
The Baggies stunned their hosts at the end of the first half with two goals in four minutes from Hal Robson-Kanu and Jay Rodriguez.
Moore's visitors then sat back in the second half and defended resolutely to see out their seventh away win in eight in the league.
It is the fourth clean sheet in a row on their travels, and the first time the club has done that since 2002, when Moore was at the heart of the Baggies' back-line.
"To get any three points on the road in this division is always rewarding," said Moore. "It was a joint effort from everybody and needed to be.
"The hard work, commitment and desire shown by the players was excellent today.
"That second goal allowed us to regroup as a team at half-time.
"We had to make a change at half-time with Hal (Robson-Kanu) because it was an old injury that was just rearing its ugly head again so we had to make a change.
"Young Sam Field came on and did well. Our work off the ball had to be as good as it was because Aston Villa ask questions.
"You’ve seen in recent weeks here they’ve come back against Hull and Sheffield United, which I was present at."
Villa were 2-0 down against Hull and came back to draw 2-2, and they were 3-0 down against the Blades before roaring back to draw 3-3. But the comeback never came in the derby.
"We thought with any straight passes we could maybe capitalise on them," explained Moore.
"There was a couple of times we did break away although the final pass just let us down from potentially getting a third. But I’ve got no qualms.
"Our work off the ball had to be good to come away with the points. Every single one of them did their jobs right through the team."
Albion became the first team to keep a clean sheet at Villa Park in the Championship this season, and moved to within four points of the top two with the victory.
"To score two goals at Villa Park is no easy feat," said Moore. "But also to keep a shut-out here, there’s not many teams will come here in the Championship and keep a clean sheet.
"That’s probably what’s most pleasing as a former centre-half myself.You always take joy and pride in clean sheets."
