Marcos Painter has no fears about facing more competition in the Albion defence.

Manager Gus Poyet is looking to sign Derry's former Northern Ireland under 21 full-back Danny Lafferty after the retirement of his assistant Mauricio Taricco.

Left-back Painter said: “I think competition for places is always good. It keeps you on your toes and helps you maintain your standards.

“The gaffer has to find the right person to bring in. He has said before he wouldn’t just bring anybody in, because we play a certain type of football.

“That’s up to the chairman and the gaffer to decide. All I need to worry about is my own performances and then make sure if this new player comes I am ahead of him in the pecking order.”

Painter and his defensive colleagues head into a tough run of fixtures at Millwall tomorrow night, at home to West Ham next Monday and away to his home city club Birmingham at the end of the month after their first shut-out in five games against Hull.

He said: “When you keep clean sheets it gives the whole team confidence. I don’t think we fear teams like West Ham, Birmingham and Millwall.

“That is the kind of challenge we wanted. We knew we were going to get that after promotion. That is what we have to step up to and make sure we are on our game.”