Optimism and frustration as West Brom take another step on road to survival

When the Baggies kicked off at Sheffield United on March 7, they were in the Championship’s bottom three.

Six unbeaten matches later, they are four points clear of the drop zone with just five games of the season remaining.

Monday’s stalemate at Blackburn was another step along the road to survival.

“Another game ticked off,” was how interim boss James Morrison later described an afternoon which saw no ground gained yet, crucially thanks to results elsewhere, no ground lost in a relegation dogfight now that bit closer to its conclusion.

Since replacing Eric Ramsay in late February, Morrison has overseen a revival of which few would have dreamed, not least when the Baggies suffered a 2-1 defeat at Oxford in his first match in charge.

The sole frustration is that, just maybe, for all the progress and renewed optimism, Albion should probably be breathing far easier than they are.

Tack on the four points dropped from winning positions at home to Southampton and Wrexham and the Baggies would be, if not quite entirely over the line, mere inches from breaking the tape.

Instead, there are still plenty of nerves mixed in with the positivity.

Monday, in some regards, could be added to the list of missed opportunities.

It certainly wasn’t anywhere near the scale of 72 hours previously, when the Baggies let slip a two-goal advantage to draw with Wrexham, or the late sucker punch suffered against the Saints.

Yet in a scrappy game of few chances at Ewood Park, it was the visitors who carved out the one clear-cut opportunity on the half-hour mark. From six-yards out, Aune Heggebo was unable to take it.

Morrison later absolved the striker of any blame and it is true the one-handed save from Balazs Toth was seriously impressive.

The bigger concern from the boss’ perspective was the number of times his side failed to take advantage of promising situations, either through indecision or a simple lack of quality.

These issues are the kind which have been troubling Albion all season and will in all probability only be fixed in the summer.

With Karlan Grant and Mikey Johnston sidelined, Morrison has few options beyond those in the starting XI. Monday’s bench featured five teenagers and the head coach opting to make just one substitution, replacing Heggebo with Daryl Dike for the final 20 minutes, spoke volumes for his resources.

What the Baggies do now possess, however, is character.

For a period of around 10 to 15 minutes in the second half they were seriously under the cosh and it was not hard to imagine the team of January or February having crumbled.

Instead, they stood tall, George Campbell cutting out a Mathias Jorgensen cross which looked destined to provide Ryoya Morishita with a tap-in before, in one of the afternoon’s defining moments, Ousmane Diakite threw himself in the way of a Jorgensen shot.

It is this fight and will to win, or not to lose, which fuels your biggest belief around the Baggies right now.

The last six matches has seen them play promotion contenders, survival rivals and mid-table dwellers and they have taken something from each, with Monday the third game in which they have kept a clean sheet.

A run-in which features a similar variety of opponents from across the division, starting with Friday’s visit of Millwall, should hold no fear for a team now competitive in every match.

It’s not perfect. It’s still tense. But you’d have taken it on March 7, no question.