Kyle Bartley hails West Brom spirit after fine Reading display
Defender Kyle Bartley hailed the togetherness in Albion’s squad after they beat Reading despite the squad being hit by a coronavirus outbreak.
Several first-team players were unavailable for selection following positive tests and, despite manager Valerian Ismael confirming that the club had enquired into postponing the match, the Baggies ran out comfortable 1-0 winners.
Callum Robinson’s second-half goal settled matters in a game in which the visitors rarely ventured out of the own half.
“None of us wanted it called off to be honest. We were all ready,” said Bartley. “We’ve dealt with it as best we could and the gaffer has been brilliant. It’s different circumstances these days.
“If there was a health and safety reason why it couldn’t go ahead then fine, but we were fully focused and ready and got the three points.
“We stuck together all week and you saw that on the pitch. Every man was as one.”
Bartley led a makeshift back three that included club captain Jake Livermore and Adam Reach in unfamiliar positions but they were rarely troubled.
“We trained for the first time on Friday and obviously it’s a new position for the boys but we’ve got a lot of experience within the team. I thought Jake and Reachy were absolutely fantastic. They’re true professionals and I knew they’d be fine,” he added. “It’s always my job to try to be the leader back there and try to talk boys through the game and help everyone out so it’s nothing new to me.
“These things are going to happen. It’s the life that we live now. And you know, it’s about the attitude and the application of the boys to really pull together, put in a performance and manage to get the three points.”
The Baggies were on the front foot for the majority of the game and should have gone in the break with a first-half lead, with Robinson and Karlan Grant both spurning good opportunities. Robinson eventually made the breakthrough when he latched on to Grant’s cross to poke home the ball from close range in the 62nd minute, but Bartley joked that the forward should have scored more.
“He could have had seven,” said Bartley. “He needs to practice his heading for sure. I just told him he needs to keep his eyes open; that might help. But he really puts in the work and we deserved to get that goal. KG again with another assist; it’s fantastic and hopefully the boys can get a lot of confidence from that and take it into the next few games.
“I thought for the first half we managed the ball really well and played some really nice stuff. It would have been nice to have got a bit of an earlier goal but patience was key and we just needed to keep our concentration at the back.”
The win consolidated Albion’s third-place position in the Championship at the halfway stage of the season. Ismael’s men are also the lowest scorers among the top five but Bartley does not see that as a concern.
He said: “You’d prefer to get the second or the third and put the game to bed, but I never felt under too much pressure and always felt confident we could manage to hold on and win the game.
“I’m glad to see that we’re making those chances and, with the quality at the top end of the pitch, it’s only a matter of time before three or four of those end up in the back of the net.”
