Aaron Connolly, Peter Gwargis and Bojan Radulovic got their names on the scoresheet in Albion’s third league game of the campaign, and Rusk was delighted with the improvement shown by his players after last week’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal.
He said, “I thought it was good progress from our game at Arsenal last week, where for spells in the game we were good.
“But tonight, for longer periods, we sustained better levels of concentration, both with and without the ball.
“Overall, I thought we were deserved winners of the game. It was a really good team performance tonight — it probably wasn’t a night for singling out any individuals.
“Collectively we stuck to our task and tried to deliver the game plan as best as we could as a group. There were a lot of committed performances in a lot of areas of the pitch.”
Romaric Yapi came into the side for his Albion debut, Alex Cochrane played in central midfield and Archie Davies lined up alongside Haydon Roberts in the heart of defence at the King Power.
Rusk commented on the versatile nature of his team selection, which also saw first-team goalkeeper Jason Steele come into the side to claim a clean sheet.
“Generally we’ve got a way of playing that we want to commit to every week," he continued. "Although there were a couple of changes in different positions, our principles of play remain the same.
“That makes it easier for people to adjust into different roles, but having said that, it could easily go the other way as well, so credit to the players for that.
“They rolled their sleeves up and were committed to what they were doing. Overall, it was a really pleasing night from a team point of view.”
Yapi played 90 minutes in Albion’s convincing win, following his summer move from PSG, and Rusk assessed the Frenchman’s opening display for the under-23s.
“Romaric came in and had a positive night — he’s still got to work at his English, and the better his communication gets the easier it will be for him to move his game forward with us.”