This is the best, says Robbo

West Brom boss Bryan Robson hailed his side’s Premiership survival miracle as the greatest moment of his career at The Hawthorns today.

Albion’s hard-fought 2-0 win over Portsmouth, courtesy of goals from Geoff Horsfield and Kieran Richardson, proved enough to extend their top-flight status because the three results elsewhere went their way.

And Robson praised his players for becoming the first team in history to survive having been bottom of the table on Christmas Day.

Robson said: “This is the best and the reason I say that is when you are at Manchester United you are expected to win championships and trophies because you are playing with great players.

“There is no expectation whatsoever here apart from expecting us to go down so that made it very difficult for us.

“But the players have responded and kept battling no matter what the circumstances so that is great credit to all the players.”

Robson appeared to have taken on mission impossible when he took charge of the rock-bottom Baggies in November and failed initially to win over the home fans.

But his acquisitions of the likes of Kevin Campbell and Kieran Richardson proved vital in fashioning the unlikeliest of extensions to their top-flight status.

Robson added: “We have had to cope with all this stuff about you can’t survive if you are bottom at Christmas, and a lot of weaker characters could easily have given that as an excuse.

“But they haven’t done that. They have really fought hard for each other and the whole club have got behind the players and really believed.”

Robson said he had had some success in avoiding news from elsewhere as The Hawthorns see-sawed between jubilation and spells of eerie silence.

But he admitted inquisitiveness finally got the better of him in the final 10 minutes, where the Baggies’ lead looked set to count for nothing because of events at The Valley.

Robson added: “The only time it affected me was with 10 minutes to go and people started saying Palace were winning 2-1.

“You start thinking is not going to be. But I always said we had to concentrate on our own performance and make sure we get the three points. We did that and we did it really well.”

Jubilant midfielder Jonathan Greening singled out captain Campbell for special praise in the Baggies’ bid for survival.

The striker followed Robson into the club and immediately had an impact beyond the three goals which all ultimately proved vital in their relegation fight.

Greening added: “The team spirit over the last three or four games has been amazing and you could see out there how much it meant to us.

“We have been a really tight squad for a lot of months now and Kevin has been a great captain and held us all together.”

Pompey boss Alain Perrin admitted Albion’s desire made them deserving winners and denied his side had not taken the match seriously.

Perrin added that striker Aiyegbeni Yakubu had been dropped from his squad because of mounting speculation of his imminent move to Middlesbrough.

Perrin – who also confirmed that he would be at Fratton Park next year despite links with Lyon – added: “During the week his mind was on other things so it is better for him not to play.”