Character was key to picking up a point against an on-form West Bromwich Albion side, as goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann reflected on a busy 90 minutes which ended level at the Hawthorns.

Bachmann was called upon on several occasions to make vital saves for the Hornets, preventing the likes of Jed Wallace and Karlan Grant from netting winners and making a string of fine stops.

It was Grant who equalised late on in the first-half after Ismaïla Sarr scored from his own half, and Bachmann felt it could have been worse if not for some resolute Golden Boys defending, but didn’t take any extra credit for his contributions.

“That’s my job!” Bachmann smiled. “It’s nice to help the team out, last week was pretty quiet and this week they needed me a bit more which is what I’m here for.

“It was a terrible start, that’s for sure. The first 45 minutes wasn’t good enough, it was far from our best performance but we nearly could have won it, and that says a lot about our team, the desire and togetherness we have. To take a point after that is pretty decent.

“It was a bad time to concede as well, if we had gone into half-time 1-0 up we might have come out in the second half differently. We tried to change a couple of things but credit to West Brom, they were very good on and off the ball.

“Having said that, we’ve got to be better. Without the ball we defended well and showed determination to get the point. The Hawthorns is never an easy place to come to and West Brom are a team that want to go up like us. It was never going to be an easy game, so to come away with a point is pretty pleasing.”

Bachmann may have had the best view of anyone when Sarr unleashed his audacious attempt from 60 yards, and like Head Coach Rob Edwards, he could tell where it was going when it connected with his right boot.

“When it left his foot I knew it was in,” Bachmann recalled. “I was right behind and knew there was nothing David Button could do about it. It never looks as good from the stands and people will look at the goalie, but there’s nothing he can do about it, it was a moment of brilliance and a nice feeling to score a goal like that especially after the start we had. We could have been 2-0 or 3-0 down at that point and suddenly we’re 1-0 up.”

It’s back to home comforts on Friday night with Burnley visiting Vicarage Road, and while Austria international Bachmann acknowledges the season won’t be defined by the three opening games, he is keen to reward the supporters’ commitment after the team’s poor showing last season in the Premier League.

The 28-year-old added: “It’s a long season, and four points from two games, when we knew the first three games would be tough, is pretty pleasing. We’ll recover now and go again on Friday.

“We know there was a lot of damage done last season. It wasn’t good enough from us, not just on the football side but off the pitch after games, the way we conducted ourselves after losing, it wasn’t nice for the fans.

“It’s been a good start [this season] to get that trust again, we know they’ll always support us. We also know there’s anger and hurt, it hurt us to get relegated and it will hurt them even more. We know what it means to them and we want to give them good performances. We didn’t give them a good show tonight but we showed determination, stuck together and got a point out of it.”

Watch Now

SEO Image