Ben Foster hails the West Brom faithful

Roughly 2,000 die-hard Baggies braved the snow on Saturday to travel down to Watford where they were in fine voice throughout, despite watching their team slip to a sixth straight defeat.

An impromptu half-time rave to the dance music being blasted out over the speakers warmed the cockles on a bitterly cold day, and the support from the away end was more than a team with three wins in their last 38 league games probably deserved.

Seven days after fans had chanted ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’ at their players, it seemed like relations had improved following a more committed performance.

The whole squad went over and clapped the travelling support after the game, and some of the fans sang back a supportive song about coming back up and winning the Cup following the club’s seemingly-inevitable relegation.

Foster, who has been at the Baggies for nearly seven years, and considers himself and his family to be Albion fans, said: “When you consider the way the weather was leading up to the game it really is incredible support.

“I know they struggled to get out of the Midlands, on to the motorways, and down to Watford so I’m really grateful they went to such effort to support us.

“Yet again they stayed behind to clap us at the full-time whistle. They were singing their hearts out.

“It’s absolutely brilliant and we really couldn’t ask for any more from them.

“I think they can appreciate we’re trying and we’re giving we have got.

“It’s really nice to have the fans getting behind us.”

Some of the fans turned on head coach Alan Pardew during the match, joining in with a chorus of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ started by the Watford fans before singing ‘Alan Pardew, get out of our club’ at the end.

But the atmosphere was nowhere near as toxic as it was towards the end of Tony Pulis’s reign and it’s understood that was a factor taken into account by the Baggies board when they decided to leave Pardew in his position.

Albion’s under-pressure head coach echoed his goalkeeper’s sentiments, and labelled the fans ‘brilliant’ after the match. After escaping the sack, he’s eager to reward those fans with victory over Leicester this weekend.

“We’ll work next week to try to get a win and that’s all we can do,” he said. “There is something to build on from that performance.”