West Brom manager Darren Moore hailed matchwinner Jay Rodriguez after his brace claimed a 2-0 Sky Bet Championship win against Wigan at The Hawthorns.
Rodriguez struck in each half to take his tally for the season to 12, as third-placed Albion reduced the gap on second-placed Norwich to three points.
Moore said: “I am really pleased for Jay. He showed his power today and he did some incredible work for the team off the ball and he worked tirelessly.
“So for him to get his rewards with the two goals was really, really pleasing.
“Jay is a great character in the dressing room and a wonderful person, a humble man.
“You could put Jay in any one of the 11 positions and he will perform to the best of his ability.
“They were two great finishes and he gave us three valuable points.
“If there is any (transfer) interest (in Rodriguez) I can’t stop that.
“Me and Jay were players together at Barnsley and his appetite now is the same as it was then. He has a real zest about him. He is a joy to work with.”
It was an effective display by Albion and Moore added: “It was a tough game. Wigan made it difficult for us and it was a game that we had to go and get. I thought it was a professional performance.”
West Brom lost 13-goal leading scorer Dwight Gayle when he set-up Rodriguez’s first goal and Moore said: “It looks like a muscular injury. We have to assess that.”
In contrast to Albion, Wigan are in freefall after a fourth straight defeat but boss Paul Cook remains in defiant mood and is confident that they will retain their Championship status this season.
Cook said: “It is tough for us at the moment but the lads are giving everything that they have got.
“Our season won’t be defined by today. I think we can take great encouragement from the game in general and how we played.
“At the moment it is not happening for us in both boxes and to concede after eight minutes was a huge disappointment.
“For an away team I felt we did enough to possibly get something out of the game.
“It is a very tough league and we have got to do our best come the end of the season to make sure that we retain our status and I am very confident that we will.
“We have to keep going. You have to go through pain in football.
“We have plenty of good times at Wigan and now we are having a little bit of rain through the roof and we must fix the roof.”
