Roy Hodgson hopes West Brom have turned a corner after beating Birmingham City

Roy Hodgson, West Bromwich Albion (Getty Images)

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West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson is hoping his side’s fortunes have taken a turn for the better after picking up his first win as Baggies boss with a 3-1 victory over Birmingham City.

Goals by Youssouf Mulumbu, James Morrison and Paul Scharner handed victory to the visitors and Hodgson praised his players after the game.

“It’s all about football players, not coaches. It’s the players we come to see,” he said.

“It’s the players that have got to do the job. Today I think our players will feel very satisfied in a difficult match with important points at stake. They did a job very well from start to finish and got their reward.”

Yet Hodgson feels whilst Albion may have turned the corner, there will be plenty of ups and downs still to come as the Premier League reaches its climax.

He continued: “Hopefully we’ve turned some sort of corner but we have a very difficult programme and it’s about taking each game as it comes and trying to give the right performance and pick the right team and accepting that it’s not going to go up, up, and up.

“There’s going to be plenty of blips in these next nine games, and we’ve just got to hope there’s not so many blips that we don’t stay up.

“I haven’t set any targets. I don’t dare do those types of things. I’m very much the cliched one-match-at-a-time [manager].

“This was a major bridge I had to cross today, we’ve got that one done. Now let’s prepare for the Arsenal game and take it from there. It really has got to be one game at a time.”

Hodgson also stated that he felt teams may need more than the traditional 40 points to stay up this season with his team currently eight points shy of that target.

“One would like to think 42 points is enough, but some years 35 is enough,” he said.

“I do believe it’s going to take more points this season than it has in the past.”

Midfielder Grahams Dorrans missed the game through injury and Hodgson revealed the influential Scot looks set for a spell on the sidelines and is a major doubt for their next Premier League game against Arsenal at the Hawthorns.

“They [the physios] don’t think it’s a serious injury, but it’ll keep him out for a least a couple of weeks,” explained Hodgson.

“For the Arsenal game he will be a major doubt.”