Cedric Kipre thriving thanks to the belief from West Brom boss Carlos Corberan

Kipre scored the opener and shone in Albion’s 4-2 victory over Middlesbrough at The Hawthorns to make it two wins from two at home.

The Ivorian is set to play a crucial role under Corberan this season. He has responded from an error that led to a goal on the opening-day defeat at Blackburn with some strong performances and has caught the eye of the head coach after returning from last year’s loan at Cardiff.

Albion are yet to keep a clean sheet this term, but Kipre’s comfort and confidence with the ball at his feet looks like being an important part of Albion’s game this season.

“It feels good to be back at Albion,” Kipre said. “It feels amazing, you know. I feel the confidence from the boys, they trust me, and the manager, who trusts me.

“That only helps me grow as a man and a player.

“It feels amazing to win at home, and it gives us strength for the next game. You can feel that the fans are right behind us.”

The 26-year-old added: “It’s good for the confidence, as well. Two wins out of two at home. It’s amazing.”

Kipre’s opener against Boro sparked a goal-fest at The Hawthorns. The defender rifled in on the half-volley after a long throw from Darnell Furlong was not cleared.

John Swift cracked in a stunner from 18 yards minutes later before Emmanuel Latte Lath pulled one back. Brandon Thomas-Asante netted immediately after the restart after Lukas Engels’ error before Tommy Smith was shown a second yellow card.

Albion were less impressive at 3-1 against 10 men and Marcus Forss scored a penalty after Furlong’s handball six minutes from time.

The Hawthorns became nervy but loanee Jeremy Sarmiento, from Brighton, smashed in a first professional goal with a fine effort early in stoppage time.

“When you score four goals, some good goals as well, to me we deserved it,” Kipre said. “We managed the game very well, we were in control for 90 minutes. Even after we lost the first game, as after we drew as well, the confidence was still here because the performances were good.

“We always work hard and the manager instils confidence into us every week. The confidence never went, and it keeps on growing.”

Kipre smiled while recalling his junior days as a striker when assessing his own strike, he added: “I used to be in those positions, I used to play as a striker! So it was no surprise to me. Touch, finish. It happened very quickly and in the end it went into the net.”

Boss Corberan wanted to see more dominance from his side while two goals and a man up in the second period.

The head coach said: “It was very hard for me emotionally to see we were better than them and instead of going 2-0 we go 2-1.

“In the second half I insisted in the key points we needed to manage today, we were dominant and the third goal gave us an option to be more calm and the red card increased our numerical advantage, we could have the ball with our advantage but we couldn’t hurt them.

“Sometimes when you have the ball a lot you lose the concentration when you don’t have the ball.

“We started to relax in defence and let them score the goal with a penalty, but with another chance before.

“We were not as dominant as I want my team in these moments.

“It’s true that when they scored we changed to 4-4-2 to be more aggressive and not allow them to progress a lot and it was very positive, the reaction, to play with personality to score the fourth goal.”