Intro:

Speaking ahead of his side's English Premier League match away to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday (21st September), West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Irvine denied rumours of a dressing-room bust up.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Alan Irvine, West Bromwich Albion manager: (On rumours of a dressing-room bust up, with players Boaz Myhill, Joleon Lescott and Stephane Sessegnon named.)

"Unfortunately from our point of view and from Stephane's (Sessegnon) point of view, it was deemed to be a risk for him to play in the game (against Everton last weekend) and for him to train, so he didn't train until today. That's how he got his eye injury, it was a completely innocuous thing, it was something that you wouldn't expect to happen you know, getting a ball in the eye. At the time I felt there was nothing that's happened here, but of course you have to be extremely careful. We couldn't possibly have taken a risk and gone against the advice of a consultant."

SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Irvine, West Bromwich Albion manager: (Q. Will you curb your natural instincts to attack (against Spurs)?)

"I think you certainly have to be mindful of the way they can hurt you. They have a lot of creative players, they've got real threat from individuals, their movement is very good, the combine well. You see from the team that they were able to put out last night in the Europa Cup (they drew 0-0 against Partizan Belgrade) just how much attacking flair they've got, how many options they've got, so you have to be very mindful of that. Obviously we have to make sure that we don't give them too much encouragement at the start. I watched their game against Sunderland (2-2 draw) and a stat(istic) came up that after nine minutes they had seven shots. That's incredible, to go away from home and have that many shots in such a short time. So clearly we need to be right defensively, but we can't be passive, we can't just sit back and let Tottenham come at us for 90 minutes, because with the quality they have they'll open you up at some point."