Football
Alex Palmer Confident West Brom Can Turn Play-Off Heartbreak into Premier League Dream
West Brom’s Alex Palmer shares his confidence in the club’s promotion push this season. After last year’s play-off heartbreak, the Baggies are driven to make their Premier League dream a reality. Thanks to their solid performances, they are well-placed to make a comeback to the top flight, making them an attractive choice for football betting fans this season.
Image Credits: Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images
West Brom shot-stopper Alex Palmer is brimming with confidence the club can achieve a memorable Premier League promotion this season.
The ambitious Baggies suffered heartache last term with defeat to Southampton in the Championship play-offs.
But Palmer and his teammates have put that agonising disappointment permanently behind them having made a flying start to the new season.
Learning from Last Season’s Heartache
Palmer has been pivotal between the posts with a string of clean sheets with the Midlands club having laid down a strong marker of their promotion intent.
“What happened last season has given us a lot of drive this season, we want to be in those top two positions,” Palmer told SportsBoom.com.
“The play-offs are tough, looking back at that Southampton game it was very even when we played them at home.”
“But we can all safely say that Southampton were the only team who really got us the better of us in the course of the whole season.”
“It made it slightly easier for us to go ‘well, look, this is the level we need to get too’.
We weren’t up to that level, and it gives us more motivation this season to hopefully be pushing the last two and become stronger as a result.
Alex Palmer
A Strong Start and Clean Sheets Key to Success
The two sides drew 0-0 at the Hawthorns but it was the Saints who triumphed 3-1 in the second leg at St. Mary’s Stadium and, ultimately, who won promotion to the top flight with victory over Leeds United in the play-off final at Wembley.
“We’re putting decent performances together at the moment, we’re taking our chances and being defensively solid, we’ve got the balance right at the moment it seems,” reflected Palmer.
“The clean sheets are really pleasing, as a group we like to be solid and I think you’ve probably seen that over the last two and a half seasons.”
First and foremost, the gaffer (Carlos Corberan) likes us to be solid because we’ve got that quality at the other end of the pitch where we’re score goals.
Alex Palmer
A Balanced Squad Ready for Promotion Push
“We’ve got some new players in, and they’ve fitted in really well, so I think now we’ve got that really good balance of youth and energy.”
“We’ve also got the older, more senior lads who have that experience. That’s what you need with so many games.”
Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.