In form Ireland international Shane Long today admitted that West Brom must beat Stoke on Sunday to save themselves from a “bad start” to the Premier League season.
The Tipperary born international revealed the Baggies are in high spirits despite two defeats at the start of the season.
But, despite two encouraging performances, Long admitted only victory in Sunday’s Hawthorns clash with the Potters will salvage an acceptable start to the campaign.
He said: “I think we need to get three points against Stoke and then we can look back on the first three games and say ‘three good performances, we’re unlucky to not have more points but we can be proud of our work.’
“But unless we can get those three points it will be a bad start to the season. We have a big week ahead of us and we need to start making all these games count.
“It’s disappointing because we are playing very well and luck is going against us but I think that’s why big teams like Chelsea and Manchester United do so well in the league, because they grind out results and get three points when it matters.
“We need to start learning from the likes of them so, if we do go 1-0 up, we hold onto it and, at least, get one point.
“We need to start punishing them. In the first half on Saturday we could have got maybe two or three goals because they held a very high line and we got in behind them.”
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