Honest West Brom skipper thinks Albion are down

Chris Brunt concedes the remarkable win at Manchester United is “probably too little too late” in the battle against the drop, but the West Brom captain has vowed to build on that memorable victory this season and beyond.

Few could blame Pep Guardiola for spending his Sunday playing golf rather than watching Jose Mourinho’s Reds host the Baggies given the Premier League’s bottom side needed to win to secure Manchester City the title.

But, emboldened by caretaker boss Darren Moore, West Brom made light of their dreadful campaign to secure just their fourth league win as Jay Rodriguez sent the visiting hordes – and blue half of Manchester – wild.

It was an organised, characterful performance from a side nine points from safety with four matches to play, but philosophical Brunt is taking the positives from a 1-0 victory to cherish in a season to forget.

“I think that’s just the work we’ve done all week,” the Baggies skipper told Press Association Sport.

“Last week we did alright, to be fair, against Swansea. We probably should have won the game.

“It’s just a bit of confidence, I suppose. It has been a long time since we got a couple of results back-to-back.

“We were disappointed not to win the game last week. We did a lot of good stuff on the training ground this week.

“We knew it was going to be tough for us coming to places like this. They’ve got loads of good players. We’re delighted to come away with three points.

“It’s probably too little too late, but it is a positive.

“We’ll take as many of these as we can between now and the end of the season.

“Obviously it buys you an extra couple of weeks, I suppose you never know. You can’t affect what’s going on around you.

“If we can win a few games between now and the end of the season, worst case scenario it gives us some good vibes going into next year.”

Next up for Brunt and his team-mates is a home match against Liverpool, with trips to Newcastle and Crystal Palace then coming either side of Tottenham’s visit to the Hawthorns.

It looks an unkind fixture list but their performance at Old Trafford will only hearten a group revitalised since Alan Pardew’s departure.

“I think obviously after the result they had last week they were confident, but we knew what we had to do,” Brunt said, referring to United’s 3-2 comeback win in the Manchester derby.

“Obviously we had to ride our luck a couple of times. Fozzy (Ben Foster) made a great save in the second half but apart from that I think every other save he made was pretty comfortable for him.

“We had a few good chances as well. (David) De Gea has made a great save in the first half from Jake (Livermore) and we had a couple of chances where we could have maybe done a little bit better, which has been a story of our season really.

“But credit to the lads, we dug in, it was a real team performance.

“We’ve been ahead a lot this season and a lot has been made of it, and we haven’t been able to hold so it was nice to see one out and to get three points, especially at a place like this.”