Mowbray confident as Baggies face final stretch
Tony Mowbray has seen his side lose just three times in the 12 games since he was reappointed as the Baggies boss
- Published
West Bromwich Albion boss Tony Mowbray is pointing to the results the Baggies got at Leeds and Burnley as the benchmark for his side's Championship run-in.
With eight games left when league action resumes at Norwich City on 29 March after the international break, sixth-placed Albion face five sides with something to play for at the right end of the table.
The match at 13th-placed Norwich, the most distant of the play-off challengers but only currently eight points behind the Baggies, is followed by home games with one of Mowbray's old clubs Sunderland (4th) and then Watford (10th), interspersed with trips to Bristol City (7th) and another of his old haunts Coventry City (5th).
But Mowbray's side are coming off the back of successive 1-1 away draws at two of the top three - and also at Alex Neil's in-form Millwall before that.
"We've been to Elland Road and Turf Moor and done OK," Mowbray told BBC Radio WM. "Now we've got places to go against teams not as high up in the table, so we have to go there hoping to get positive results."
After those five games, all potential six-pointers, the promotion challenge faces a potentially even tougher hurdle for the final three matches.
Starting on Easter Monday, when Albion host Derby County (22nd), their final three games are against sides currently scrapping in the bottom four - the last away game at Cardiff City (21st), followed by a last-day home date with Luton Town (23rd).
"We wanted a win over Hull City to open up a gap," he said. "But it's now eight games to go. Eight big games.
"The crux of it, as it always has been, is to still be in it on the last day when the wheel stops turning. It looks like there might be four or five teams within three points of each other.
"We've something to play for going into the final stretch and you've got to look forward confidently to the challenge. What will be will be, but we at least want to get to Wembley and give ourselves a chance."
As to the shape of the Albion squad for the run-in, Mowbray hopes an extra week's rest and treatment is enough for left-back Callum Styles, who missed Saturday's 1-1 home draw with Hull with a calf injury.
Tammer Bany has suffered a minor knock - and Mowbray hopes to have Jed Wallace (calf), Semi Ajayi (hamstring) and top scorer Josh Maja fit before the season's end, while Daryl Dike is still working his way back to full match sharpness, having come off the bench five times in the six games since returning from his year out with Achilles trouble.
Albion's last eight games
29 March: Norwich City (a)
5 April: Sunderland (h)
8 April: Bristol City (a)
12 April: Watford (h)
18 April: Coventry City (a)
21 April: Derby County (h)
26 April: Cardiff City (a)
3 May: Luton Town (h)
Tony Mowbray was talking to BBC Radio WM's Steve Hermon