Alex Mowatt believes it’s “no surprise” to see Saturday evening’s guests to The Hawthorns Ipswich Town doing so well in the Sky Bet Championship this season.
The Tractor Boys, who are back in the second tier for the first time since the 2018/19 campaign having won promotion from League One last term, arrive in the West Midlands as joint-league leaders with Leicester City.
Kieran McKenna’s men boast a record of 12 victories, 36 goals, 39 points and just one defeat from their opening 16 league matches and head to The Hawthorns unbeaten in 12 Championship fixtures.
Mowatt will determined to earn a place in the starting XI this weekend for an Albion team intent on extending their run to six games without defeat on home soil.
But the former Barnsley man knows the Baggies are up against a side who are full of momentum, confidence and ability, and says he’s expecting a really strong test.
Alex said: “They’ve had a great start and everyone’s been quite surprised by how well they’ve done.
“But I know one of the lads there and he spoke about how Ipswich want to play and I think it’s similar to how Boro did things when I was on loan at the Riverside Stadium last season.
“Their boss Kieran McKenna is obviously a former Manchester United man, just like Michael Carrick, and he wants to play similarly to how Carrick did.
“So from that sense, it’s no surprise how well they’ve done this season playing that way.
“They’ll come here with a great record. I think they’ve only lost one game so far and are unbeaten in 12, which shows how good they are and how confident they’ll be on Saturday.
“They've had some great results and scored plenty of goals, but we need to be confident in our own ability because we're also a very good side.
“It’s a great challenge for us, but we’ve shown numerous times this season already that we’re up for the challenge and we’d love to get what would be a big three points.”
You can hear more from Alex Mowatt on his return to the club, life under Carlos Corberán and his desire to score more of his trademark screamers in Saturday's edition of Albion News.
