We caught up with Newcastle match-winner Harvey Barnes after his match-winning brace against his former club Albion on Wednesday - fair to say he still holds some very fond feelings of the Baggies.

Newcastle star Harvey Barnes offered an apology to fans of ‘great club’ Albion after he fired a brace to dump his former side out of the EFL Cup.

Winger Barnes emerged from the bench at half-time to fire two second-half goals to condemn spirited Albion - now managed by his former Albion team-mate James Morrison - to a 3-2 second round defeat.

The former Leicester man admitted he “loved” his few months at The Hawthorns, which ended early as the Foxes triggered a January recall clause. Barnes said the Albion spell in the first half of the 2018/19 season was ideal for his career before he went on to excel for Leicester and Newcastle and become an England international.

“I loved it when I went to West Brom,” Barnes said.

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“From a football and excitement-wise it was some of the best moments I’ve had in my career.

“As a young player going there, with the football we played, team we had, the whole environment was perfect and I thrived in.

“Mozza was part of the squad then, so it’s a bit weird to see him as a manager now - I just saw him a minute ago! They were really good times.

“I didn’t want to come back from my loan, I was enjoying it that much, it was sort of out of my hands.”

Barnes, who had just turned 20 at the time, lit up The Hawthorns with nine goals and seven assists in 26 Championship matches for the Baggies. His recall was a huge blow as Albion went on to endure play-off heartache.

“From all my loan spells it was my most important,” he added. “The changing room and environment was a Premier League club that had just been relegated. It was the step that I needed.

“I met some amazing friends there. I loved my football there.

“I was going to say I was disappointed to score - I wasn’t because I love scoring goals! But apologies, because it was against a great club.”

Morrison, who has tried to encourage Barnes to represent Scotland previously, smiled afterwards: “I was talking to him afterwards. It’s still like I was a player with him, with that connection we have. It’s no surprise how well he’s doing.

“He’s a winger who scores goals, is always a threat. It showed we caused them problems that they brought Harvey on.”