Clarke hails Baggies players

West Brom boss Steve Clarke hailed his players as they maintained their fine start to the season with victory over Southampton.

Last Updated: 05/11/12 at 23:44 Post Comment

The Baggies have made their best start to a season in 29 years after moving into fifth spot in the table with a 2-0 success over basement boys Southampton.

Clarke, who is in his first sole managerial role, believes the players deserve the credit for their success this term.

"Like I say it's been a good start, but it's not for me to take any credit," Clarke told Sky Sports HD1. "The players I have selected have been fantastic, they have approached every game with the right attitude and got their reward for that approach."

Clarke is refusing to set his side any targets, insisting securing survival is his primary target.

"I think we've said from the start we focus on the primary objective which is to make sure the Albion are in the Premier League again next year," added Clarke.

"That is always the first target and we are on the way to that, we've given ourselves a real good start and we have to build on that.

"The quicker we reach the safety margin or the quicker we feel comfortable that we are going to be in the league next year we will look at other targets."

Clarke was delighted with the response shown by his side as they bounced back from two straight defeats to Manchester City and Newcastle.

"We spoke before the game about making sure we got our season back on track," he explained.

"We've had two good performances and no points and I don't think the performance was as well as we've played this year, but we controlled the game and got the win we wanted.

"The timing of the second goal was perfect for us, I thought Southampton were just starting to get a foothold in the game and we caught them on the counter with a fantastic cross from Shane Long and Peter [Odemwingie] showed a great desire to get in the box."

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