WEST BROM NOTEBOOK: FIVE CAPTAINS, MOWATT CONFIRMATION AND WALLACE DECISION

West Brom boss Carlos Corberan keeps his five-strong dressing room leadership group on their toes by mixing up who will bear the captain's armband when club skipper Jed Wallace isn't in the starting XI. Wallace found himself on the bench in Saturday's 3-0 victory over Preston North End as Albion confirmed their place in the Championship play-offs.

As a result, Kyle Bartley was handed the responsibility to lead the team out and he did so with aplomb, scoring the crucial second in the comfortable win and helping Albion to an 18th clean sheet of the season. Many might've expected Conor Townsend to assume the responsibility as the usual next cab off the rank in Wallace's absence, but the decision by Corberan had the desired effect.

Indeed the Spaniard considers there to be a pool of five players he counts on to lead the team - whether they wear the armband or not - on the pitch, senior heads who have played an awful lot of football for the Baggies between them down the years and who Corberan looks to whenever he decides that Wallace won't be involved from the off.

READ: West Brom have been robbed of one dynamic all season but there's time for an impact

READ: Carlos Corberan holds talks with West Brom with contract decisions imminent

"When I decided my first captain, Jed Wallace, I decided other players - Townsend, Bartley, Okay and Furlong will be the other captains of the team," he revealed. "The captains have some responsibilities different to the other players. Between them I didn't want them to know who will have the armband when Wallace is not on the pitch, because for me they all have the same responsibility.

"Townsend has taken the responsibility and I think that he can do perfectly, but I wanted to give the armband to someone that for me deserved to, because he has been a captain without the armband. I wanted to compensate that with him. I wanted Bartley to score the goal he scored and was thinking with the armband he would have more chance!"

For a match in which Albion required a positive result, and despite the wealth of options Corberan now boasts in the wide areas, you might've been forgiven for expecting Wallace to have been guaranteed a place in the starting line-up - not so.

"To not play Wallace in the first XI was unfair from me," Corberan explained. "To play that game without [Tom] Fellows would have been unfair from me too. So it means there is a point to make an unfair decision. Analysing the game I understood we needed some of the things we have from Fellows in the game and we needed from the bench some things from Wallace too."

Corberan also confirmed Alex Mowatt as the club's second penalty taker, whenever John Swift isn't on the field. Midfielder Mowatt scored his second goal of the campaign on Saturday from the spot, in first half stoppage time, to set Albion on their way to victory. While Brandon Thomas-Asante has taken penalties since joining the club, it is Mowatt who you can expect to fill the role in Swift's absence.

"We have one order of penalty takers, Swift is the number one because he proved his accuracy level has been excellent and the second one is Mowatt," Corberan added.

How will Albion fare in the play-offs? Tell us here

2024-05-06T12:11:55Z dg43tfdfdgfd