By Phil Jennings
WEST Brom manager Jimmy Shan says his side will have to up their game against Villa in the Play-off semi finals.
The West Midlands rivals will face each other for a place at Wembley with the first leg at Villa Park this Saturday.
Both of them lost their final matches of the regular season on Sunday.
But while a Villa side missing several key players put up a decent fight against champions Norwich, the Baggies went down at Derby and a 3-1 defeat allowed Frank Lampard’s side to join them in the Play-offs.
And Shan admits things will need to improve if they are to get past Villa.
He told reporters: “We need to make sure we prepare in training and perform a hell of a lot better than that to have some success against Aston Villa
“We spoke for about five minutes about things tactically, work-ethic and application. That probably went missing out of us at 3-1.”
Shan felt his team may have had one eye on the Play-offs at Pride Park.
He added: “Those are the most disappointing things. The goals we conceded and our work-ethic for a 15 or 20 minute period in the game.
“I spoke to the players and there were some honest assessments. Maybe having cemented our place for so long and having the play-offs round the corner, sometimes that can act as a bit of a distraction.
“That distraction’s gone now, there’s no excuse and we know exactly who we’re up against.
“After they scored the third our level of application and work-rate wasn’t acceptable. We’ll look to rectify that and improve that. We’ve got to move on.”
Villa Roar 