The latest West Midlands sport headlines, from Daniel Wales. 05/06/25
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00:00Birmingham World reporter Charlie Haffenden has praised the rise of Wilburhampton Wanderers under manager Vito Pereira,
00:07especially given the position they were in when Gary O'Neill was sacked part of the way through last season.
00:13He said that Vito Pereira's rise with the club has been extraordinary.
00:17I think it's been an extraordinary rise under Pereira.
00:20Feels like a weird moment to say stand out because they've been relegated, but that win away at Leicester,
00:25just kind of an immediate feeling of, OK, we're back now, we can try and push on from here.
00:30It might not seem much of winning against a team that ends up getting relegated,
00:33but at that point it was a six-pointer, it was a must-win for Wolves.
00:37Then to go back up against Manchester United on home soil as well,
00:40starting to get that belief back in Molyneux and the connection, the points before the pints,
00:45the whole thing, I'm going to go to the pub and meet the fans of Wolverhampton,
00:48I think it's become a little bit, gone out of proportion a little bit now, maybe spoken about too much.
00:52I'm now mentioning it again myself, but it does show, doesn't it, the connection with the fans
00:56and how important it is, and we've seen that with the results on the pitch,
01:00ending up so far away from the relegation zone, finishing above Tottenham Hotspur,
01:05who've gone on to win the Europa League.
01:07I think that's a pretty amazing achievement from Wolves, and hopefully they can go and kick on next year.
01:11And Haffenden also commented on West Bromwich Albion,
01:15and said that losing manager Carlos Corcoran part of the way through the season
01:19cost them a place in the playoffs.
01:21The Baggies finished 9th, missing out on the top 6.
01:25Absolutely, I think the Corcoran, the fact it was on Christmas Eve as well,
01:28it's not quite the Christmas present you want to wake up to, is it, on Christmas Day?
01:32You can understand why he left, going to his boyhood club Valencia,
01:36who were in a relegation scrap in La Liga.
01:38He's done an incredible job since.
01:39He's got them very close to European football in La Liga,
01:43which is incredible considering where they were.
01:45Fair play to him, but it just emphasises how good of a manager he was,
01:48and how much of a miss he is for West Bromwich Albion.
01:51I know at times the football wasn't pretty,
01:54but grinding out 1-0s and 2-1s here and there were enough to claim enough points,
01:58especially in the first 10, 15 games of the season.
02:01At that point, West Brom were right up there,
02:03potentially even outsiders for automatic promotion,
02:06but obviously things fell away.
02:08So many draws.
02:09I mean, it was getting ridiculous, wasn't it, at one point?
02:12Hardly any goals at the Hawthorns whatsoever.