Jan Paul van Hecke enjoyed his first Europa League campaign and wants more of the same next season.
Five victories, one draw and two defeats, plus topping Group B, are achievements that everyone associated with the Albion can look back on with pride, even though the continental adventure ended too soon for all of us.
Now the task is to qualify again for the 2024-25 campaign, which is likely to mean improving on the present Premier League position of eighth.
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“A lot,” he replied when asked how much he had enjoyed the club’s first taste of European competition. “These are the games you want to play in. It’s incredible. The atmosphere was incredible as well.
“It’s really nice to play in the Europa League and now we definitely want to go back there and we are going to fight for it.”
JP started every match in the competition, so what was his verdict on Albion’s debut?
“I think the group stage was really good,” he said. “But then we go away to Roma and lost 4-0 and you know it is a really hard task. It didn’t work out and we are upset about that.
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“But I think we put a good effort in, created a lot of chances, but we didn’t score and 1-0 [in the second leg] is not enough.
“Of course it is big ask when you lose 4-0 away from home and you need to score four goals and need to be really good, but I think the belief was there, otherwise there is no real point playing. We told each other we need to believe and we need to go for it.
“I think we did. You could see our effort was incredible. You have got to take your chances and have a bit of luck and I think it didn’t work out.”
The Dutch defender twice came close to doubling Albion’s lead on the night with that elusive first goal for the club. “I should have scored one. Maybe you get to 2-0 and they get a bit more nervous because it felt like they were, not panicking, but they were more nervous because they felt like we were strong. But it was not enough.”