Mowbray looking for luck

Tony Mowbray is looking for abit more luck as his team take on Portsmouth this afternoon(Saturday).

The Baggies could only manage a point against their relegation rivals four months ago when they battled out a 1-1 draw with Jonathan Greening opening for Mowbray's side only for Peter Crouch to cancel it out with his deflected shot.

As the games disappear and they find themselves eight points from safety, its beginning to look like Championship football for West Brom next season.

Tony Mowbray's team still has the fans support as 1,400 fans will be making the trip to the south coast to see them hopefully end their run of nine games without a win.

And as Mowbray finds himself telling the clubs official website about the Portsmouth game, its fortune they need on their side and not just the fans.

"Our home game against Portsmouth was one where we felt we could get three points," said Mowbray, who lost striker Ishmael Miller for the season in that fixture.

"Great credit to the team because we performed well that day.

"The likes of Crouch and Defoe played for them and yet we were still very competitive.

"We've got to go down to Fratton Park and make sure we're just the same in this game.

"Let's hope we can grab a little bit of fortune that hasn't been going our way recently."

But its Portsmouth as well that are looking to take the points as well.

"Portsmouth seem to be able to grind out results at the moment," he said.

"We've played them a few times over the last couple of years and they're a good, well-organised side.

"They've got experienced footballers in Sol Campbell, Sylvain Distin, Hermann Hreidarsson and David James, who have all been around a long time.

"They know what this league is about and what it takes.

"It's going to be a tough nut to crack.

"They're hard to score against because of the experience they have at the back.

"Campbell and James were the main rocks of the English national team for a long time.

"Now they're at Portsmouth doing their job week in, week out.

"That makes it very difficult to get in behind them and to break them down.

"At the other end, they have Crouch, another England international, in a bit of form and scoring goals.

"He is a handful for anyone because of his size and quality."

And with the players still reeling from their last defeat, its the way that they have responded in training that has impressed the Baggies manager.

"The players needed to get back to work, get their heads down and get on with it," said Mowbray.

"Training has been fine and their attitude has been good."

Mowbray added: "You've got to remain hopeful.

"There's no point in me sitting here and saying 'all hope is gone'.

"If you look at the next two fixtures, on paper they look very difficult.

"You could say 'we've only won one away all season so why are we going to win the next two?'

"But when you get to this stage of the season there are various reasons that decide matches.

"If we go to Portsmouth and get a victory then the Man City game becomes less daunting.

"They've had a lengthy run in the UEFA Cup and they will have played on the previous Thursday night.

"It will be an emotion-filled evening for them in the second leg against Hamburg.

"If that takes a little bit out of their team, maybe we can go there and get a result on the Sunday because they may not quite be mentally prepared for the game.

"Who's to say we can't win two games away from home very quickly?

"I look at the table and think if we'd won the last two games we really targeted we would be sitting one victory from catapulting out of the bottom three."

By Steven Fisher