West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan refused to criticise Huddersfield manager Neil Warnock after getting one over his old club with a 1-0 win at The Hawthorns.
John Swift’s penalty on the half hour made it nine wins and a draw in 10 home league games for Albion and kept Huddersfield – who Corberan led to the Championship play-off final last season – in the relegation zone.
Before the game, veteran Terriers manager Warnock, 74, claimed Corberan “must have a good agent” to have got the West Brom job.
Albion’s third win in four – all without conceding – put them three points outside the play-off zone with 10 games left.
Corberan said: “I always analyse the opponent a lot but I always focus on the things how I can help my team. My mind is only on this.
“Because of the way I was brought up I’ve got massive respect for every opponent I play.
“I’m always very pleased when my team wins, especially when it’s as a consequence to the performance.
“It was a competitive one, where two teams played with determination to get the three points for different reasons.
“Both teams had the motivation to get the three points to improve their position in the table.
“With Huddersfield fighting for points to stay in the division, it made it very complicated to play against them.
“The team played well in the first half but it was a different type of defensive set-up we had to face.
“We adapted well to the demands of the game, with the moments of quality from Jed Wallace on the left and Adam Reach on the right.”
Albion dominated the game but Huddersfield had chances shortly after the start and near the end when Tom Lees headed over and David Kasumu fired wide when clean through on goal.
Huddersfield have failed to enjoy a ‘new manager bounce’ following Warnock’s return from retirement to replace Mark Fotheringham.
The Terriers are now six points adrift of the safety line after one win in five under the 74-year-old – their only victory in their last 12 games – while they have failed to score in six of their last seven.
Warnock said: “We missed two great chances with Tom’s header, then when David was through on goal.
“Tom’s was a free header and David’s was a good opportunity and you’ve got to take those chances. Goals change games.
“I don’t think they had any clear chances like that, then we gave a sloppy penalty away, so we were disappointed.”
Despite Huddersfield’s miserable run of results, Warnock said this was the best performance he has had from the players since his return.
He added: “I can’t fault them at all. If the lads play like they did today, I can’t complain.
“That’s probably the game that’s pleased me the most.
“You could sense the crowd were nervous and if we’d have got a goal in front they’d have been even more nervous.
“I said to the players ‘if we can go for the first 20 minutes without conceding, you’ll hear the crowd go quiet’, and they did.
“Everything went right until a silly, lazy penalty.”
Warnock admits his team’s chances of staying up are slim, saying: “At the moment, we’ve got no chance because we haven’t scored for four games.”
