Tony Pulis says top half finish isn't 'be all and end all'

The Baggies boss has never finished in the top half of the Premier League, although he’s come close on several occasions.

He finished one point off 10th in 2011, the same year Stoke reached the FA Cup final, and then two points behind the Baggies a year later when Albion finished 10th under Roy Hodgson.

When Pulis was handed a 12-month contract extension last October, chairman John Williams charged him with establishing the Baggies in the top half.

But the head coach has been pleased with the steps forward his team has made this season and he insists that is more important than the club’s final resting place.

“People talk about that,” he said. “I’ll say this, those two years at Stoke we’d have finished in the top ten, but we got to a cup final one year and we got into Europe and that affected it. The last year, four points covered five positions.

“If it happens it happens but it’s not the be all and end all. The be all and end is to push the club forward and to keep pushing the club forward. That’s the most important thing.

“We’re going to have hiccups along the way, pressure will be put on you and there will be criticism.

“The longer you stay in it you understand, it’s going to tip backwards and forwards. What you’ve got to do is ride with it.”

Albion currently sit in eighth place, 10 points clear of the bottom half with nine games to go.

Although the Baggies face a tricky run-in with four of the top five still to play, Pulis has put himself in a strong position to deliver the top half finish Williams and the board want.

But in two of the last three full seasons the Welshman has proved himself capable of doing that.

If his 1.51 points-per-game ratio from 27 league games at Crystal Palace, who he guided to 11th, was extrapolated over the whole season, the Eagles would have finished eighth with 57 points.

His 1.43 points-per-game ratio from his first half-season at Albion would have lifted them into the top half on 54 points.