Roberto Di Matteo has revealed his happiness after returning home from his first tour in charge of the Baggies.
Albion opened their mini-tour with a convincing 3-0 victory over NK Nafta before drawing 2-2 against Croatian outfit NK Varteks with the new head coach pleased to see his players increase fitness their fitness levels.
Despite claiming his disinterest at results in pre-season Di Matteo was pleased with Albion’s results over the trip to the Balkans after the Baggies remained unbeaten – and only minutes away from a 100% record.
“Varteks are the best team we've played so far so it was a good test for us,” the former MK Dons chief said.
“We're gradually stepping things up.
"On Saturday, some players played for more than 45 minutes while a few came back from injury - including Robert Koren.
"It was good to see Roko back.
"He joined in full training with the squad on Friday evening so we just gave him a little run-out at the end.
"All in all, it's been a good week.
"We've worked very hard.
"We've also had a couple of good friendlies and I'm very pleased with the players.
"We've got to know them better and vice versa."
The trip saw a number of much-maligned forwards at Albion once again find their scoring boots with a Craig Beattie brace and a goal from Luke Moore helping the Baggies smash five goals in just two games.
While Di Matteo has no preference on goalscorers he admits the strikes will help raise confidence levels ahead of the big kick-off against Newcastle.
"It doesn't really matter to me who scores, as long as we do score," he continued.
"But, as I said on Wednesday, it's important for strikers' confidence that they score goals, so it's good those two are among the goals.
"Everybody's a part of my plans at the moment.
"The players are obviously trying to impress me and are working hard."