Ahead of their tricky encounter against Portsmouth next weekend, West Brom manager Tony Mowbray has aired his views that his side is more than capable of staying up in the Premier League, and blamed the fixture list for the team’s current disastrous drop in form. West Brom go into the match knowing that they are the underdogs, as they haven’t won for the past 8 games. Although their opponents have lost their match in the UEFA Cup on Thursday, deep down the players must know that they lack the experience and quality of the Pompey players, like David James, Glen Johnson, Defoe and Crouch. However, Mowbray has full belief in the ability of his squad to cause an upset.
“We have had a tough run of fixtures, several away games and a home match with Chelsea, which give an unfair balance of how many defeats we have had.”
“With respect to Portsmouth, who have some quality players like David James, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson, who all have played for England, this is a game we are targeting to get a victory. We have enough quality to win enough games to stay in this division and then hopefully we can build again and move forward.”
“But we are aware we need to score more goals. The team knows that. We created chances and had 21 shots against Wigan, which is an impressive statistic for a team bottom of the league. We need to put chances away and also cut out the lapses of concentration at the back which have cost us dearly in the last couple of league games.”
“To lose to an 86th-minute goal at Stoke and an 87th-minute goal at Wigan is difficult to take but we are not far away from being a very good Premier League side. Wigan were in the bottom three when they played Everton but after winning that game and defeating us, they moved into the top half of the table. We have to stay positive and if we can string two or three wins together, everyone will be saying it is a great season for Albion. It is fine margins and we have not got a mountain to climb.” – Tony Mowbray, West Bromwich Albion manager
