Slaven Bilic happy with West Brom’s point at Swansea

Posted Sunday, March 08, 2020 by PA

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic urged his players not to panic after being knocked off the top of the Championship.

Leeds reclaimed first place after more than a month of chasing the Baggies down as Swansea held them to a 0-0 draw.

The high-fliers dominated possession in the first-half but failed to find the breakthrough before being put on the back foot for most of the second period.

But Bilic called for calm with his side still six points clear of the play-off places.

“It’s good to get the clean sheet with a solid performance and to more or less control the game,” he said. “But we know have to be better in terms of quality in the final third. That’s what was missing today.

“That echelon behind Hal Robson-Kanu were not like they usually are. We had 10 shots which is not a lot for us considering the amount of possession we had.

“The results apart from Leeds and Brentford were OK, the results around you affects the valuation of the point.

“I would love to be in top spot, but it doesn’t worry me. We have one less game to go, the gap is very balanced, it is significant, it is big enough not to panic.

“It also keeps you on your toes and keeps you focused knowing you could lose it in a split second and find yourself in a situation where it is smaller.”

Callum Robinson pounced on a mistake from Matt Grimes to force Freddie Woodman into a save with what turned out to be the Baggies’ only shot on target.

Jay Fulton had two clear cut chances to put the hosts ahead, first firing over after following up Grimes’ saved shot, before blazing over from his captain’s cut-back.

Swansea dropped a place in the league but narrowed the gap on the top six to three points, and head coach Steve Cooper is confident they can push on towards the play-offs.

He said: “We are down a place in the league and a point closer to the play-offs – that sums up the Championship, doesn’t it?

“It’s nine games to go, three points away from getting over the dotted line.

“There are worse places to be. I think about some of the teams who are below us who would do anything to be in the position we are in.

“We are only thinking really positively and we are going for this. We are really going to back ourselves.

“On another day we could have got more from the game.

“We are never going to be 100 per cent happy to draw at home, because you want to back yourself to win any game at home, but we have to respect the game it was and the opposition.

“They are top of the league, they are the league’s top scorers, they have a ridiculously strong squad.”