Carlos Corberan: West Brom heart helped fight back and overcome Stoke City
Proud Albion boss Carlos Corberan saluted the "heart" of his squad after showing character in spades to fight back and win at Stoke.
The Baggies kept their play-off dreams alive with a dramatic turnaround at the bet365 Stadium where the returning Jayson Molumby struck twice as Albion won on the road for the first time since January 14.
The visitors trailed at half-time to Jacob Brown's header and there was another body blow just before the interval as striker Daryl Dike fell awkwardly and was stretched off with an Achilles injury that looks set to end his season.
Corberan's side had not won in seven games on their travels but bucked that trend as midfielder Molumby converted two scrappy efforts within 10 second-half minutes as Albion rallied and put the Potters to the sword. The result cut the deficit to sixth and the play-off places to just two points until Blackburn play this evening.
Corberan said: "I feel very proud today for the mentality the players were showing today.
"It was the necessary mentality to overcome. It is not easy to do this when you are suffering in some parts, like the injury of Dike, with the previous injuries.
"When you always face difficulty in life two things can happen – two things can happen, you can give or up or you can face and overcome and you are even better, this is what the players did today.
"We lost Dike after they scored one goal, with all the problems that we can have, they showed the character necessary to win the three points."
Stoke had the better of the first period, though Corberan did not believe there was much between the two sides in a first half broken up to lengthy injuries to Dike and City's Ben Wilmot in Staffordshire.
But the head coach hailed a marked increase in determination, heart and desire after the break – traits he had criticised his troops for lacking in the disappointing Easter double-header against Rotherham and QPR.
Corberan insisted Albion's Molumby-inspired fightback was a result of "heart on the pitch".
He added: "Every game is different, it's not only about mentality, also emotion, how you manage the emotion during the game.
"And this week it was necessary for me, for us to compete in the second half, the difference between the second half and the first one was determination, for us to win 50-50 balls and to create danger.
"If you analyse the second half we conceded two chances, the first was an amazing save from Alex Palmer and the goal was after one counter-attack we created (for them), and for me we had three or four counter-attacks that we could have finished much better to unbalance the game. I don't think the result was fair because we created more but they were clinical in the box in the first half.
"In the second half we played with a lot of heart on the pitch, we put the heart on the pitch and we scored the goals with the heart.
"It was goals of desire, passion, mentality, this is what we are and what we can do."
Stoke finished a bad-tempered affair with 10 men after midfielder Ben Pearson was dismissed for two yellow cards in the closing stages as referee Andy Woolmer struggled to keep a lid on things. Alex Neil's men were wound up with how the visitors saw out the contest by using opportunities to slow the game down, leaving the Potters unable to test the returning Alex Palmer in Albion's goal.