Tony Mowbray says Albion are determined to take a big step towards their overall goal this weekend.
The Baggies take on Hull City at The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon (ko 3pm) – the first of nine remaining fixtures in the Sky Bet Championship.
Mowbray’s men are locked in a battle with several other sides for spots in the top six, while the Tigers are targeting another three points having beaten Oxford United 2-1 at home on Wednesday night – a result which means they head into the weekend sitting five points clear of the drop.
The boss says the contest is a “dangerous” one for his team, but stressed the players have “utter focus and concentration” on the task at hand.
Tony said: “We’ve got nine really, really big games to come. We’ve have to break them all down into individual matches and not look at the ones too far ahead.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge of facing Hull City at The Hawthorns on Saturday. I think it’s going to be a tough challenge for us because they’ve won six games away from home this year, including wins at Millwall, Sheffield United and Sunderland to name a few.
“When I’ve been watching them they play on the front foot and are pretty aggressive. They won’t come to us and be submissive, I think they’ll come and have a go.
“There’s undoubted quality in their team. They were in a play-off battle last season but had a tough start to the current term and changed their manager.
“Ruben Selles is very talented and when I watch his team, they’re exciting. They’re a bit similar to us in terms of their mindset of how they approach games. They don’t go and play for a draw and put everyone behind the ball, they come and play on the front foot and back their own talent.
“It’s a dangerous game for us and an open game I think. At home we play against a lot of teams who put a lot of men behind the ball. It’s going to be a good football match and hopefully one we come out on top in.”
Mowbray added: “We’d rather be in our position than the other ten or so teams who still believe they have a chance of finishing inside the top six, and listen, they have got a chance too.
“There’s still very few points separating lots of teams, so we have to be consistent and we have to make every game difficult for every single team we come up against.
“We have to keep trying to find a way to put the ball in the net, and that starts this weekend. We have utter focus and concentration on what we need to do. We’re trying to move closer to what we’re trying to achieve.
“Let’s keep going and try and put three more points in the bag.”
