West Brom keeper Josh Griffiths reveals boss’s message
Albion goalkeeper Josh Griffiths has revealed Carlos Corberan's message to play with 'personality'.
The Baggies returned to winning ways against in-form Middlesbrough to stay on the coat-tails of the play-off hunt ahead of a run of key fixtures, beginning at Hull on Friday night.
Academy graduate Griffiths, 21, kept Boro at bay to secure a first Baggies clean sheet at the third attempt.
The keeper explained that head coach Corberan told his troops to show their personality in front of The Hawthorns crowd as Albion's supreme home form was extended – and the hosts responded by bursting into a 2-0 lead inside minutes.
"To play with personality, he speaks about it a lot, to play with confidence," said Griffiths, who was recalled from Portsmouth by Corberan in January and has earned a place between the sticks.
"Obviously the more we have the ball it'll limit their chances, so it was about going out there and playing with personality and we definitely did that in the first 25 minutes.
"In the second half it's always going to be difficult, 2-0 up at home the natural instinct is always to hang on for the win, but I think we got a good balance of playing when we needed to and defending really solidly."
Griffiths added of Albion's latest home win, an eighth in nine in all competitions: "It was a real team performance, we dug in when we needed to, defended at times when we had to and limited them to few chances.
"They are such a good team so massive credit to everyone, from the management staff to the lads for putting it to work, so yeah a great performance."
Griffiths made a fine save from Boro's Isaiah Jones in the seventh minute of stoppage time to preserve his maiden clean sheet, one he hopes to follow up in Humberside.
He drew praise from boss Corberan, who said: "For me, it was an excellent save. I need to analyse the situation and why they came very close. Sometimes when you're defending your box, you are too attracted to the ball and you lose a little bit the balance and the space in front of the keeper.
"It shouldn't have been a big chance, but in the end it was a big chance. We can go from one player to another – everyone was having a lot of contribution, today the whole team was responsible for the win."
