SLAVEN BILIC is hoping to give starts to West Bromwich Albion’s transfer deadline day signings against Millwall in the League Cup first round.

Charlie Austin, Grady Diangana, Matheus Pereira and Chris Willock were all missing from Saturday’s league game between the two sides that ended in a 1-1 draw.

But despite seeing his side drop points in their first home game of the season, Bilic didn’t regret leaving the quartet out and will look to give them their debuts when the two sides meet again in the cup at The Hawthorns tomorrow night.

“They were not ready. They only had a medical on Thursday night and trained on Friday. It was too early. It’s not like the World Cup where we have four games,” said the Croatian.

“Apart from Grady none of the others played or trained with the first team [at their previous clubs] as they were waiting for transfers. Only Grady was coming on for West Ham for 20 minutes or half-an-hour.

“I would love them to be involved in the game on Tuesday but it’s also a serious game and we are going to have a serious approach to this competition.”

Saturday’s draw left Bilic disappointed after his side had dominated possession throughout and went 1-0 up when Millwall defender Alex Pearce headed a Matt Phillips free-kick into his own net 12 minutes after the break.

But the home side failed to build on their slender lead and were pegged back on 75 minutes when substitute Matt Smith tapped the ball home from close range, much to the delight of his manager Neil Harris.

He said: “I’m delighted for him that he got the goal. He could have had eight goals in pre-season, I’ve never seen someone with such bad luck through a run of games.

“He’s a player that can score a lot of goals for us, the way we play, the way we can dictate set-plays and get up the pitch. He can score goals in this team.”