Walters’ reminder for Trap

WHAT a week it has been for Jon Walters.

Just days after making his Republic of Ireland debut, Walters gave Giovanni Trapattoni two more reasons to show he has a huge role to play in Ireland’s Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

Walters came off the bench to help Stoke blow West Brom away with a second-half surge at The Hawthorns.

The 27-year-old striker made his Ireland debut as a half-time substitute at the Aviva Stadium against Norway last Wednesday and joined the action in the 79th minute at the Hawthorns on Saturday, scoring twice to give Stoke a flattering 3-0 victory over West Brom.

“It has been a really good week,” said the Merseyside-born player with a grin.

Albion had the better of the first-half exchanges at the Hawthorns but fell behind 10 minutes after the restart when referee Chris Foy adjudged Scott Carson to have fouled Kenwyne Jones in the box and Matthew Etherington tucked away the resulting penalty in the 55th minute.

Walters converted another penalty followed by a shot the former Ipswich striker smashed into the roof of the net in the third minute of added time.

“It wasn’t a great pitch,” Walters said. “The first penalty came and then we did really well.

“I was just happy to come on and make an impact. We were 1-0 up and the idea was more to keep the lead.”

Walters praised the brilliance of striker Kenwyne Jones for Stoke’s third.

He said: “We had the long throw. Kenwyne had three players round him and he still managed to hold it up and get to me. The keeper made a good save but I still managed to get to the rebound. On the back of two wins I think you are always going to be confident and there was a bit of a buzz around the place.”

Walters had to be content with sitting on the bench at the Aviva Stadium and the Hawthorns, but the £2.75m signing from Ipswich in the summer is prepared to be patient.

He said: “I want to be playing but I think I said at the start of the season when I was playing there will be a time when I am on the bench and I will be supporting the players that are playing.”

Walters added: “We had a good little run at the start of the season and it’s good to have another good one, so we have to keep it going now and look ahead to the next game.”

Having started the season impressively and risen as high as fourth in the table last month, West Brom have now taken only one point from the past 15 on offer.

Boss Roberto Di Matteo admits that as the team’s form has slumped so has the mood in the camp, but with more than half the campaign still to go, the Italian wants his charges to pick themselves up quickly and focus on the challenges that lie ahead.

“At the moment we are a bit down, I have to be honest, because obviously we haven’t picked up many points from the last few games,” Di Matteo said.

“We need to roll our sleeves up, work harder, try harder and keep going, keep fighting. There are a lot of points to play for we must keep going.”

Stoke manager Tony Pulis, whose team have now won three matches in a row, revealed he had had “a little bit of a go” at his players during the interval after they had struggled to impose themselves on proceedings in the opening period.

“I thought West Brom played their part in the game,” said Pulis.

“It was a pretty open game in the first half and they moved the ball around quickly. The good thing for us was that they never had that many clear-cut chances, but I was a little bit disappointed and we had a little bit of a go at them at half-time.”