Carlos Corberan: Muhammad Ali helped inspire West Brom

Albion moved into the Championship’s play-offs with the 3-2 win at Kenilworth Road, after finding themselves 2-0 down inside 10 minutes, thanks to Daryl Dike, Jayson Molumby and Conor Townsend goals.

Albion’s Spanish head coach explained he used a picture of legendary heavyweight Ali with the words ‘insist’ and ‘resist’ as he geed up his ranks ahead of the clash.

Corberan said: “(I use it ‘insist’) a lot. In the meeting before the game I put two words (up), insist and resist.

“I put one picture today of the boxing, Muhammad Ali in one of his most important combats.

“When you are doing boxing, not always are you going to hit the opponent. You need to have two things – the opponent will hit you and you need to try to resist the moment that he hits you.

“This is in football, in life, the two things that we need, insist and resist.”

From one American heavyweight to another it was powerful US international frontman Dike’s goal before the interval that helped Albion on their way to a remarkable ninth win from 10.

Unlikely goalscoring duo Molumby and Townsend, with just their second Albion goals, sealed the turnaround by netting in quick succession after the hour as their side marched up to sixth..

Corberan said: “It’s with the mentality that you have to do your best to achieve what you want to achieve.

“If after you cannot do it, then the worst feeling in football is not a defeat, the worst feeling is if you didn’t try to do enough things to achieve what you want to achieve.

“You cannot do better than this, when you do are doing everything you can and you don’t win the game, in football and in life this happens.

“But the idea was to give our best to achieve what they want.”

Corberan added when asked about feeling pride in his players for their efforts: “It is necessary in football, I feel pleased that they are doing everything that football demands to do, not what I demand them to do, what football demands them to do.

“They showed it (character) today and it was key to win the game but they have showed it to me previously too.

“They have one high level of commitment with the situation and commitment with the games.”