Gary Megson banished assistant head coach Ben Garner to 'lift the mood'

On Tuesday Megson told Garner – who was brought to the Baggies by departed head coach Tony Pulis – that he wasn't required to help with training this week.

The 58-year-old made the call did it because he wanted 'bouncy and enthusiastic' people at the Palm training ground after Pulis was sacked on Monday morning and he felt Garner was bringing the mood down.

Megson also insinuated that Garner, who does have a long-term desire to get into management, had half an eye on the Albion hot seat.

The former Baggies boss, who has been out of football for five years, says he has 'switched' into management mode himself, but reiterated that this stint in charge of Albion was not an audition for anyone to take over permanently.

"They told me what happened with Tone on Monday and said I would be in charge in the interim," said Megson. "From that moment on, you switch into what you've done in the past.

"I've done this for nearly 700 games and been a manager for a long time. I just did what I felt was right for the club.

"We've got some really good coaches. Dessy (Mark) O'Connor, Jonathan Gould, we've got other analysts like Carl Blakemore who is terrific at his job.

"It was something I felt we needed. On the back of what happened to Tony we needed to lift that mood, have bouncy and enthusiastic people about.

"There's nobody here who's using this as an audition to try and push themself forward for the West Brom job - myself included.

"We're all here to roll our sleeves up and get the players in the right frame of mind to go out and compete.

"It's not a case of falling out, never had a crossed word. It was just my choice on what I see in what is a peculiar period."

Garner has not been sacked as assistant head coach, and Megson said the decision whether he stays at the club will lie with the new manager.

"That is something for the future," said Megson. "It is nothing to do with me. My role might finish in an hour’s time and then the powers that be will decide what we do from that point onwards. Or it might not."

When Megson was asked why Garner didn't fit into the positive vibe he was trying to instill at the club this week, he said: "That’s not for me to judge anybody else’s personality, and I am not going down this road of talking about one certain person.

"We have got what we’ve got here and I’m quite pleased with it."

Albion continue to search for a manager while Megson fills in as interim boss. Slaven Bilic declined an interview and Derek McInnes - who was keen on the job - has not been contacted and is staying with Aberdeen.

The board would prefer a boss with Premier League experience, and are believed to be interviewing Alan Pardew this week. But Megson is happy to fill in for the time being.

"I’m just filling in," said Megson. "My role as such is just taking training and try to keep things on an even keel.

"I’m sure that every waking hour they’ve got at the moment is focused on trying to do the right thing for West Brom.

"Is it something that needs to be done very quickly? It’s not. The important thing is to get it done right and to get the right person.

"If that happens quickly whatever they do is something you’ll have to put to the board rather than myself."

Everton have been looking for a manager for the past four weeks and now Albion have joined the hunt too, but Megson doesn't believe there is a dearth of top managers out there.

"There’s a lot of good managers not working, myself included," he said. "Once you’ve been managing for a while people have preconceptions of you, that in my case aren’t particularly how I am.

"When clubs are looking around for a manger they must have an idea of the type of person they want.

"It used to be winning games, getting the job done and moving the club forward.

"I’ve taken over clubs that in the main have been in a mess and managed to turn every one round apart from Nottingham Forest, I couldn’t do that.

"But there’s other things that people are looking at, pretty shallow things. But hey ho."

Albion have gone 11 games without a win in all competitions and have looked toothless in attack this season.

But Megson refused to reveal whether he would make widespread changes to the team that lost 4-0 to Chelsea. He also refuted the suggestion the players would be low on confidence.

"Not low on confidence, they’re professionals," he said. "They’ve played for different managers, they’ve played for Tony and they’ll play for future managers all of them.

"They’ll get used to that. In reality in the end they play for themselves and their families but at the moment they’re playing for West Brom.

"With that in mind they’ve been really good. In terms of what I’ve done with them the actual training has been high tempo. They’ve worked hard.

"They seem to have enjoyed it but you’ll have to ask them. It’s not purely and simply about enjoyment it’s about getting everything prepared to take things forward."

Megson spent four and a half successful years at The Hawthorns near the start of the century, and has nearly 700 games in management, but he has never managed at Wembley before.

Despite that, he insists Saturday's venue is not extra special in any way.

"This is a caretaker ground for Tottenham, it's not Wembley, it's not an international, it's not an FA Cup final," he said. "Terrific stadium but you've done nothing to get there. Everybody will play there.

"I don't want all our lot going down there thinking this is great, this is Wembley, it's Tottenham's ground and we need to perform. I loved White Hart Lane anyway."

Megson did, however, play on the hallowed turf of Wembley, even if it was under strange circumstances.

"I starred in the Mercantile Credit Cup with Sheffield Wednesday!" he laughed. "That doesn't really count!

"We were with Howard (Wilkinson), and it was 10 minutes each way and there was a round robin.

"All the games were on Wembley and Howard gets us in and said everyone's taking this really seriously, and then the result from the first game come through - don't know who it was - but it was something like Manchester United 0 Oxford United 4, so you could see how seriously they were taking it!

"That's as near as I've been, lost three semi-finals, nightmare."

James Morrison (Achilles), Nacer Chadli (thigh), and Craig Dawson (knee) are all still sidelined for this weekend's game.

There were some suggestions Chris Brunt may have rolled his ankle at half-time of the Chelsea game but Megson reported no further injuries.

"It's come too early for Nacer and James Morrison," he said. "The good news is there's nobody majorly injured as well."