Slaven Bilic hails 'complete' West Brom performance against West Ham

Conor Townsend's first Baggies goal was enough to win the tie at the London Stadium and see Bilic taste victory against the club that sacked him in November 2017.

Albion dominated proceedings in the Captial for well over an hour with the excellent Filip Krovinovic and Charlie Austin both going close to extending their lead.

They had to dig deep in the final 20 minutes when Semi Ajayi was dismissed for a second yellow card.

With a man advantage, the Hammers piled on the pressure. But they only created one real chance - which Mark Noble spurned late on.

"I feel good - I am very pleased with the result," Bilic said when asked how he left to beat West Ham.

"I am even more pleased with the performance.

"We were positive from the start, we were brave, we were on the front foot.

"We kept the ball really well, we had the right distance between the players.

"We got into good situations very often in the first half either from playing out from the back or from nicking a few balls from them when they were trying to build up.

"To be fair, I said to the guys at half-time the only thing I wasn't happy about was the result - and we were winning.

"We should have been more up.

"In the second-half, it was more of a normal game until the red card, second yellow.

"Okay, they then put us under pressure. But we defended well, we defended in numbers.

"Of course, you have to sit deep and defend crosses and your box.

"Sometimes you have to let them be in a position where they have a shot - you can't stop it.

"But we limited them to one chance with Mark (Noble) right at the end.

"We also kept the ball a few times, high up the pitch.

"That was necessary to break their rhythm and rest a little bit.

"But we deserved it big-time I think. It was a complete and mature performance."