Soccer: Megson prepares for changes
West Bromwich Albion boss Gary Megson admits his club have a huge summer task ahead of them as they begin to prepare for life in the Premiership.
Albion’s 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at a raucous Hawthorns sealed their return to the top flight after a 16-year absence.
Megson stepped into the Albion hotseat two years ago when they needed a last day win over Charlton to ensure First Division survival.
Two years later, and after a net transfer outlay of just £2million, he watched as goals from Darren Moore and veteran striker Bob Taylor lifted them into the Premiership.
But Megson said: ‘‘We’ve got to look at what we’ve got here. We can’t even fit all the press into the press room.
‘‘This club’s got an awful lot of hard work to do now and an awful lot of decisions to make which will be really important for us.’’
Megson went on to call the big day one of the best of his football career.
‘‘It’s certainly one of those best moments. It’s different as a player, everything seems better as a player. But it was really enjoyable.’’
Enjoyable was not how most of the Baggies fans who crammed The Hawthorns with noise and colour would have described the majority of the 90 minutes.
Albion could have gone behind in the opening moments and took time to settle. News soon filtered through that Wolves had taken the lead against one of Megson’s former clubs Sheffield Wednesday, and at that point it was the Molineux men who were heading up.
Moore’s second goal of the season with a close-range strike in the 15th minute calmed the nerves and with Albion’s defence showing more of the form which has seen them leak just five goals since the New Year, the result was seldom in doubt.
Veteran 35-year-old striker Taylor added the second in the 58th minute when Palace goalkeeper Alex Kolinko spilled a long-range shot from Neil Clement.
It was fitting that a man so steeped in the history of the famous club should grab the goal which effectively sealed their passage back to the big time.
Megson admitted: ‘‘In games like this it’s hard to remember anything other than the goals. It was always going to be about the result and everything else goes by the wayside.
‘‘We’d talked beforehand about making it a special day.
‘‘We haven’t been where we wanted to be for 16 years and we tried to emphasise that we’re out there as a team, but there’s so many people who also care about the result.
‘‘They did it not just for themselves, but for everybody who kicked a ball with them.’’
