Carlos Corberan pointed to an increasing self-belief after West Brom snapped Preston’s unbeaten start to the Sky Bet Championship season with an emphatic 4-0 away win.
The Baggies took a fourth-minute lead when Darnell Furlong drilled home a shot from 22 yards, before further strikes from Alex Mowatt, Matt Phillips and Kyle Bartley completed a great afternoon for the visitors.
The result marks West Brom’s first win since August 26 and lifts them back to within touching distance of the play-offs, while Preston remain third in the table after six wins and two draws prior to this humbling.
“Defensively and attacking, that was a fantastic performance,” Corberan said.
“I was delighted to see complete effort and commitment from all the players, and that was exactly what I had been after.
“I’ve told the players previously that they need to believe in themselves and that belief was there for everyone to see today.
“Perhaps at times we needed to do more things during the game, but I cannot be critical after a victory like that.
“I was so pleased to see every player competing from the very first minute to the last. There are different challenges in this division too.
“We met those today, but we all know the physical demands of the Championship.”
After a frustrating September, where West Brom lost to Huddersfield and drew with Bristol City and Watford, Corberan hopes they can make up for lost time and rack up some wins.
They have three home games to come in their next four league fixtures, starting with Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday.
“Games are coming at us all the time, and we have to cope with that,” he said.
“We knew exactly how tough it was going to be to come here and get a result.
“Preston have had a great start to the season, and their players will never give anything up.
“Their high intensity was something else we knew we needed to match but we did that and this has been a fantastic result.
“We need to take this positive feeling into the next games now.”
While Corberan hopes the result is a landmark moment in their season, Preston manager Ryan Lowe plans to forget it as soon as possible.
They face tricky away games at Leicester and Ipswich before the international break and Lowe insists they cannot dwell on the defeat for too long.
“We were nowhere near the levels I expect from the lads, but you have to remember West Brom are a really good team full of good players,” he said.
“They’re well coached, you can see that but I was also proud and pleased that our lads didn’t give up – we kept going right until the end.
“We’ve been terrific so far this season. We’re still in a great position, we’ve only lost one game.
“We’ve lost three points, not six or nine, so it’s not all negatives. The lads know they weren’t good enough today, but we won’t linger on it.
“I’ve told them all that I want lots of smiles on faces on Monday morning, and there will be. The manner of the defeat was a big disappointment, but credit to West Brom.
“Ultimately we’ve just lost one game – today has just been one of those days.”