Tony Mowbray praises the West Bromwich Albion defence

Mar 10 2008

WEST Bromwich Albion are a renowned free-scoring side but Tony Mowbray gave special praise to his team's defensive capabilities as well as the strikers after last night's comprehensive FA Cup quarter-final victory over Bristol Rovers.

"It was never a 5-1," Mowbray admitted. "But it's a great credit to the players that it was and the quality of our strikers - and we've seen that all season.

"We've scored goals all season. We scored five in the last round at Coventry, three at Peterborough.

"There is a thirst and the hunger there to score goals.

"And when you look and see Kevin Phillips - who has just been voted best player in the Championship - sitting on your bench, it motivates the players on the pitch to strive and work hard to score and try and stay in the team.

"For long spells it was a very, physical tough game, which is what we expected, on a surface that was probably better than we expected.

"But we prepared for it and great credit to the players.

"I thought defensively we stuck to our jobs.

"They [the defence] have taken a bit of stick at times this season and we came into the game knowing that we would have to deal with set-plays and ball being loaded into our box.

"We headed lots of ball out and I thought they stood up to the test well.

"And, as I said, our strikers possessed the quality to win the football match."