Mikey Harris wants to put every minute to good use on a long trip to Manchester.

The Albion coach has been shifted from the men’s academy and placed in charge of the senior women’s team after Melissa Phillips was sacked.

He will have one training session before his first game in charge, away to a Manchester United side who are flying high and nicked a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Broadfield earlier this season.

There will also be plenty of time to talk to players still shocked by Phillips’ departure, which was announced on Thursday with the final day of the men’s transfer window in full swing.

He was due to check on injury reports yesterday afternoon.

Harris said: “It has been a huge shift in focus for me because my focus has been with the men and the academy.

“But I think we are really tight as a club.

“The buildings are so close together and I have had a lot of inter-action with the staff and the players this season.

“I’m not going say I am an expert on the WSL because I think that would be disrespectful to staff who work in it every single day.

“My focus has been on the men and the academy side and now the focus is to shift and lean on the staff who are experts in that area and help them be the best they can be moving forward.”

Ironically, an away game at Manchester United was also how Phillips began life as Albion head coach, suffering a last-gasp defeat in an FA Cup semi-final.

Harris said: “We have got one training session on the grass but also a lot of coaching is done off the grass.

“Plenty of analysis sessions so we have got lots of work we can do in the time we have got.

“Of course it’s minimal time.

“But, again, it is just another challenge we will try and overcome.”

Harris has a varied CV as a coach and has also done some co-commentary work for television.

Asked about his football style, he said: “It would just align to the football club’s, really.

“We want to dominate the ball, we want to have more of the ball than the opposition.

“We want to play exciting football, when we have got the ball we want to get it back as quickly as we possibly can.

“And then, in terms of set-pieces and things like that, be really robust in both boxes, be a threat from set-pieces attacking-wise and really solid defensively.

“In a nutshell, pretty simplistic but that would be the foundations on which we work.”

Albion’s target remains to be a top-four club but that is clearly for the longer term rather than this season.

They have a six-point buffer over the one relegation place and a realistic goal for now appears to be a mid-table berth and a greater degree of stability.

There are also ties in two cup competitions coming up, probably while Harris is in charge.

He added: “We are dealing with human beings and I pride myself on being able to get the best out of people.

“That is what I have been trying to do for the last 20 years so I am hoping the skills will be transferable.”