Boss: We'd be Championship force

TONY Mowbray believes Albion would be a force in the Championship next season - if their Barclays Premier League survival bid fails.

The Baggies are seven points adrift of safety, with six games remaining, after Saturday's 2-2 draw at Portsmouth.

But the Hawthorns boss has still not given up hope of beating the drop to give him the chance to progress his side in the top flight.

"We are seven points behind so if we win three of our six games, will Newcastle and Sunderland win another one?" said Mowbray.

"It would have been nice to win at Portsmouth and then go to Manchester City believing we could win to make it more interesting.

"But it wasn't to be.

"If we go down we will be strong next year.

"If we keep people like Greening, Koren, Morrison, Fortuné and Olsson, who competed well against a strong Portsmouth team, I believe we would be strong in the Championship.

"Hopefully we would do the same as we did last year and play our way out of the Championship.

"Hopefully we could come back with a good crop of players who have been through this experience this year and know what it takes.

"And hopefully a coach, who understands the league better, understands the quality of the opposition and knows what it takes to win games.

"The disappointment is that if we drop out of this league we are going to lose a little bit of the progress we've made.

"Whereas I feel if we could stay in this league it would be so much better next year because we would be able to add one or two quality players and go to places like Portsmouth and let them know they're in a real match."