West Brom boss Tony Pulis thrilled to reach 40-point mark

Tony Pulis said he was delighted to see his West Brom side reach the 40-point mark with a hard earned 0-0 draw at Sunderland.

The Baggies are 11th in the Premier League, 13 points clear of Sam Allardyce's side in the final relegation spot with seven games left to play.

Goalkeeper Ben Foster turned in a man of the match performance to earn his side a share of the spoils at the Stadium of Light but Pulis was thrilled with his side's dogged display and congratulated his players on reaching 40 points.

"I'm delighted for everybody at the football club - supporters, chairman, all the staff and the players. It has been a tough and very unusual season this year," he said.

"We have come here today; they have been away for two weeks. I thought the resilience they showed - especially in the second half - I thought the first half was pretty even. Second half Sunderland had to win the game, and they threw everything at us.

"The way we defended, Ben [Foster] was absolutely fantastic in goal, was first class. Really pleased with them because we didn't have any time at all to really get stuck into them and get their feet back on the ground after a lot of them travelling away to play international football.

"I was concerned today - 39 points, I think, is safe and I think the players felt as though we were safe so I was really concerned, with them being away, whether we had that in us to give that sort of performance because it is very easy to not have a go.

"We have a responsibility to this league, never mind anybody else, that we have a go, we show people we are West Bromwich Albion - wherever we go we are going to give a performance."

Although their Premier League status is not mathematically guaranteed, reaching 40 points at this stage represents progress for West Brom on last season and Pulis wants to see that continue.

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"I've spoken to the chairman [Jeremy Peace], and we'll have a meeting at the end of the year but it is a really good club, it is a well-run football club - he has done a wonderful job here, financially. I think everybody understands and I think the supporters respect what he has done," Pulis said.

"We've just got to try and improve every year and move on and try to get better. Fingers crossed, things will drop for us and we will be able to bring a few players in who will give us a little bit more than what we've got at the moment in respect of going forward but we should never lose that resilience, determination and doggedness that I love as a manager and I love as a person."

Pulis handed 16-year-old Jonathan Leko his Premier League debut from the bench as he replaced Saido Berahino in the closing stages and he is keen to see more West Brom academy players get to play first-team football at some level.

"The football club has got an outstanding academy with a lot of talented players," he said. "The problem we have had is those players have not been out playing football. They have not been exposed to men's football and that is one of the things we will try to improve next year.

"For Jon to go from being an academy player, he's only 16 years of age, to the Premier League, I think he came on for 20 minutes or whatever it was. I spoke to him afterwards, he was in a daze it was so quick and obviously the atmosphere and everything else.

"We have to try and improve it that way so we give them a little bit to get used to what we want them to be but, talent-wise, the club has got enormous amounts of really raw talent in the academy."