Wile, who played 618 games for Albion before moving into the boardroom, described the decision to sack Moore while the club were in fourth place as ‘brave’.

Shan is now in pole position to see out the season after winning his two games in charge as caretaker boss.

Wile believes Shan’s inexperienced background doesn’t matter if he continues to get results, but he was still shocked to see Moore given the boot.

“Like everybody else, I was very surprised that decision had been taken at a time when they were comfortably in the play-offs,” said Wile. “I thought it was a very brave decision.

“If they had somebody in mind to come in immediately then you could say ‘well yes, it’s still brave, but obviously they were prepared’.

“I always qualify what I say when looking from the outside, because you never know what the true facts are.

“I’m not close to the players, I have no ideas what their feelings are.

“If you look underneath what they’re saying, it seems as if some of them were not totally 100 per cent sure that Darren was doing what should be done.

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“Which surprises me, I always thought Darren had a really good relationship with his players.

“But to have done it without someone in mind or pretty well sure someone would come in has got an element of risk to it.”

Shan has won his first two games in charge as caretaker boss, and is now in line to see out the season, provided tomorrow’s game against Birmingham City goes well.

“It’s a bit like when Darren took over,” said Wile. “The players have won two games for the new coach. That’s all you can judge people on.

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“Some people consider them a bit fortunate to beat Swansea. You have to look at it from a dispassionate point of view. It wasn’t necessarily a 3-0 win and you can’t be fooled by results.

“But whatever the fella’s done, the players are responding. Hopefully that continues to be the case, and if they continue to do it, then fine. It doesn’t matter where you come from.”

Shan insists automatic promotion could still be on the cards, provided Albion win all their remaining eight games.

“I’ve always had my doubts that they would go up automatically,” said Wile. “I didn’t have many doubts they would make the play offs.

“They’ll still be telling themselves they can make up the difference to the top two but that’s asking a bit too much.

“But I know from my own experience when we got promoted with Johnny Giles, we came from a fair way back.

“We just kept getting the results, and it went down to the very last day. You’ve got to believe.”