Anything but the play-offs will be fine for West Bromwich Albion midfielder Robert Koren.
Koren, who scored the winner in Albion's 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, is the club’s longest-serving player, joining in 2007.
That was the campaign where the Galacticos of the Championship – think Diomansy Kamara, Jason Koumas, Kevin Phillips, Zoltan Gera, Nathan Ellington – tried and failed to reach the Premier League under then new-boss Tony Mowbray.
Koren was Mowbray’s first signing and had bad memories of that campaign.
Joining in January 2007, his imput wasn’t enough to prevent Albion from missing out on a top two finish and needing a Wembley final to get through the play-offs. They lost to Derby.
Even though Mowbray’s men were to win the title the following year, Koren is keen to avoid another knock-out.
“I was involved in the play-offs when I arrived at the club and my experience is not nice,” he said. “I prefer the top two so hopefully we will get good results at the end of the season and stay out of the play-offs. where there is a lot of pressure.
“I think we have enough quality to show in the last 11 games that we are good enough.
“We’ve done a great job so far and we need to keep going. Everybody needs to play a part and if we believe it as one we can do it by finishing in the top two.”
