"It's not new, it's the players we've got" West Brom boss on consistency woes

The Baggies have not won successive matches since September and that alarming statistic extended with Wednesday's dour home defeat to top six rivals Blackburn.

Blackburn, with caretaker management in charge and John Eustace poised to join Derby, climbed above the hosts into fifth.

Asked about the inconsistent run of form, Mowbray said the struggles are not new and once again honed in on his side's poor defending for Blackburn's goal - and the significance of the suspended Kyle Bartley from the backline.

The head coach referenced the mentality of his squad while addressing the struggles of regular results.

“I don’t think it’s new, I was told we hadn’t won back to back games since September," Mowbray said. "It’s telling me it’s not new, it’s the players we’ve got. We need to find the answer with the mentality of the team because I think the talent’s there. Let’s go on and win the next one.

“Today, if Bartley had played, they wouldn’t have scored the first goal in my opinion. I said to them, even if it finishes 0-0 because you don’t get through this low block, take the point and put it in the bag. 

“The defeat you feel and it hurts a lot, especially as we’re trying to build momentum. We’d just won a game at the weekend and then we have another home game, it doesn’t matter who it is as you feel you can win your home games. We were desperate to make it back-to-back wins and create a little gap and yet it now all closes up again.

“It feels like when the wheels stop turning in May, you’ve got to be on a good run and find yourself in the top six. When I was at Sunderland, we had to rely on everyone else’s results. It’s going to be one of them with lots of teams feeling like they have a chance.

“If you don’t win games, you won’t get there. You’ve got to get to 70 points or maybe more. It doesn’t matter which games you win, we’ve got to find a way from 14 games to win half of them.

“That’s where we are and we have to accept it. We try to find consistency, we try to find the players who can do the job and I do think we’ve got a good squad. We played against a very honest and resilient team today, I don’t think they can do what we can do with the ball but they found a way to win and that can happen in football.”

Mowbray has said he is learning about his new players by the day and will certainly pick up more as each game passes.

The Baggies are yet to keep a clean sheet in the returning boss's five games in charge.

Asked to pinpoint what he had noticed specifically about struggles for consistency, he once again referenced a desire and appetite to do the basics when it comes to defending.

The boss replied: “I’m trying to give you a reason that it’s not something I’m doing, I don’t think. We’ve not won back to back games all season, since September anyway. I need to get under the surface of the team and find out why that is. 

“I know what drives me and makes me want to win every game — you have to take it personally. When I played, that’s what football was all about. That first goal would’ve never happened if I was playing. I shouldn’t talk about 30 years ago but you have to take it personally.

“I’m having to say to the defenders that it’s got to hurt like hell if they lose a goal. It’s such a soft goal, as a corner comes along a big lad at the back heads it across and the centre-forward smashes it in. It’s too easy and it can’t happen!

“It doesn’t happen to them, they get touches on it, they head it out, they throw their bodies in the  way. Why aren’t we doing that? I need to get to the bottom of that and peel back the layers.”