Clarke thrilled with away points

West Brom manager Steve Clarke was delighted to see his side pick up their first away win of the season 2-1 at Wigan on Saturday.

A goal from James Morrison and an own-goal from Gary Caldwell did the damage at DW Stadium, and Clarke said the win was just reward for their efforts.

“It was long overdue, our away performances have been as good as our home performances, but it’s nice to finally get a win away from home, especially at such a difficult place to come,” Clarke said.

“I think this is a really good three points.

“This week we are happy where we are. We just keep working game to game. We have the European champions next at home.”

Clarke was pleased with the effort of stand-in goalkeeper Boaz Myhill, who was called upon when usual shot-stopper Ben Foster was ruled out to undergo minor groin surgery.

The West Brom boss said Foster will return to training next week and was keen to give Myhill his moment in the sun.

“To speak too much about Ben today would be disrespectful to Boaz,” he said.

“He has waited a long time for his chance. I though his handling was excellent, he made some really good saves. He gave a really assured performance which was great for us and I’m delighted for the boy.”

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez was disappointed his side could not maintain the form that saw them win their last two league games against West Ham and Tottenham.

“I don’t think we were as good as we can be today and that is very frustrating,” he said,

“We know that West Brom are a really strong unit who play with real confidence.

“To concede two goals early on in the game was really disappointing. When you are playing against a side like West Brom the priority is to score the first goal.

“We wanted to win so much after the two great results we had. We didn’t expect to go two goals down and I don’t think we could cope with that as well as we wanted to.”