Swansea City v West Brom: Performance needed to avoid unwanted record under Don Howe in early 70s
It has been a miserable season full of false dawns and on New Year's Day Albion fans will be forgiven for fearing more of the same.
Monday night's set-piece inspired home victory over QPR was crucial after a defeat at The Hawthorns had preceded it on Boxing Day.
It brought a crumb of comfort and helped stop any rot but the real rut Ryan Mason's side must crawl from is on their travels.
The current run is historically bad. It had been three decades since Albion lost eight away matches on the spin in the second tier and the last time that became nine in any division was Don Howe's relegated Division One class of 1972/73.
Back then, in Howe's second season at the helm, a measly pointless return began in the new year - at Sheffield United on January 6 - and dragged on all the way until the end of the campaign and a 3-2 defeat at Birmingham.
Needless to say if Mason's crop of 2025/26 endure a similar run to the end of the season then the same demoted outcome beckons.
South Wales hosts Swansea are the next opportunity for Albion to end an embarrassing sequence that started on October 4. The Swans are resurgent under new boss Vitor Matos and since losing a rollercoaster clash at The Hawthorns in late November have won four from six including all three at their Liberty Stadium home.