Big Ron: Baggies need pace

Former Albion boss Ron Atkinson has pinpointed attacking pace as the missing ingredient from the Baggies' Premier League campaign.

Big Ron has been impressed with Tony Mowbray's team, having watched as a radio commentator, but reckons three-goal leading scorer Roman Bednar needs pacy support in attack.

The former Manchester United and Villa boss reckons firepower is the biggest difference between this Albion team and his famous side of the late 1970s.

He said: "They pass the ball a lot and we passed the ball well but we also had loads of pace up front.

"We had people like Regis, Cunningham and Willie Johnston in attack and Tony Brown could get goals from midfield.

"We had a lot of dangerous goalscoring players and we were as good as anything in the country. We had what I would term 'top of the range' players."

Atkinson still believes Mowbray's men have a good chance of retaining their Premier League status.

He said: "They try to play it in the right way but it's going to be very hard for them. They could do with winning matches against the teams around them.

"It is going to be difficult for them, like it is for everyone, when they play the absolute top teams. But if they can get points from the teams around them they have a good chance.

"Whenever I see him play I am always quite impressed with Bednar, although he has a hard job playing up front on his own."

Atkinson was back at the Hawthorns this week for a reunion dinner to remember his glorious first spell in charge of the Baggies.

He still looks back at his time in charge of Albion as one of the brightest spells of his colourful career.

He said: "It was terrific. It was as good a time as I have ever experienced in football. I believe if we hadn't had a big freeze that year we might have gone very close or even won the league that year (1979).

"We had a smashing team, a great bunch of lads and it was really enjoyable."