West Brom v Nottingham Forest: Albion are desperate for consistency

The Baggies take on Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest at The Hawthorns, having failed to score in their last two fixtures.

Albion put in a good performance against Blackpool in midweek, but could not find a way to break to deadlock, whilst their trip to Huddersfield yielded no goals or points.

Those results have left the Baggies eight points off the automatic promotion spots, and only a single point clear of fourth-placed QPR.

And that sparked anger among Albion’s travelling support at Bloomfield Road, with chants of ‘Sack the board’ from the away end.

Despite that, the boss says his team are in good spirits and are looking forward to building on the solid performance on the Lancashire coast.

And he is looking forward to getting back to The Hawthorns under the lights this evening for another Friday night fixture – a further source of frustration for Baggies supporters this season.

Ismael said: “We feel good, I think that it’s always a good feeling for Friday night games – personally I like the Friday night games.

“[It’s a] home game, so we’re looking forward to the game, we’ll take the good performance from our game at Blackpool.”

Ismael admitted that consistency will be key for Albion to get themselves back into form and begin a winning run.

“I’m desperate for consistency, [we] win from consistency because I know this is the way. If you want to reach a purpose you need to win with consistency and this is what we are seeking all the time and we’re working very hard to come in that run.” he said.

“We want that, we have the desire and now it’s another chance with the game on Friday to start the run we expected.”

Ismael is expecting a tough challenge from a resurgent Forest, who have risen up the Championship table since appointing new boss Cooper following the axing of Chris Hughton in September.

Cooper took over a Forest side that sat bottom with just one point from their first seven games. They have since collected another 23 points from their subsequent 12.

That progress has slightly slowed in recent weeks, however, having won just once in their past six games – a run which has also seen them draw four times. And Ismael warned: “I think since Steve Cooper came, [they’ve become] a stable team, changed their way to play – [they’re] another team.

“They’re organised, he’s a great manager – I played a lot of games against him last season, with the Championship and then the play-offs so I know him very well now.

“[He’s] a very good manager so it will be a very tough game, but we are at home and we have a massive desire to get the job done and to get the reward. We have an attitude, enough is enough now to force our destiny.”