West Brom v Watford preview: Boss 'confident' of chances due to key figures

Albion have lost three games in a row and are winless in five at crunch time of the Championship campaign and have dropped out of the top six places and down to eighth.

Tuesday's defeat at Bristol City and success for Coventry 24 hours later means Mowbray's men now trail the play-off places by five points with five games left. It means the Baggies realistically require at least three wins but probably more from their final handful of fixtures. Albion have not won consecutive games since September.

But the head coach has seen progress with the last few games despite all ending in defeat. The 61-year-old pointed out the key attacking statistics, including expected goals (xG), all point in his side's favour and back up what he believes is a generally improving style and ability to control games.

The Baggies have, however, retained their blunt touch in the final third and have managed a paltry return of 49 goals from 41 league games this term.

Mowbray said on the eve of the visit of 10th-placed Watford: "I think the team is playing at a level that is more than capable of winning lots of matches.

"In the last three that we lost, we went to Norwich and saw the shots, chances, expected goals we had to what they had. Ultimately all that people care about is the score and we managed to lose.

"Sunderland is exactly the same - hugely different expected goals and shots yet we lost that as well. The other night was a much closer game, they had better of the first, we had better of the second. Again if you look at stats - which I do to see what I watch with my eye reflects the game statistically - we were close to two expected goals and they had a quarter expected goals and we still managed to lose 2-1.

"We have to put the last three games into context, we played at a level more than capable of winning matches yet for various reasons we didn't win any.

"We lost and it's not the ideal time of the season to do that but we have to move forward and move on."

Albion's expected goals - the unit that measures the quality of chances at goal - was 1.87 at Ashton Gate on Tuesday as second-half chances for Adam Armstrong, Ousmane Diakite and Daryl Dike got away. The hosts' was 0.80 but prevailed with a soft 96th-minute winner.

The same metric against Sunderland last Saturday, a 1-0 defeat at The Hawthorns, was 1.71 to a low 0.23 in Albion's favour. Yet another goalkeeper error - a different keeper on each occasion - resulted in defeat.

"We're pretty confident we can do that," the head coach said of stringing wins together to fight back in the race. "I sit here and believe if we continue at the level we've played at we can win all the games we've got to play.

"But I'd have said that after watching the Norwich and Sunderland games, where I felt we did enough to win. Bristol City are a good side and have given lots of teams problems, they have the best home record from 10 or 11 games." 

Mowbray added of the mood at the club's training ground:  "We are frustrated. The place isn't bouncing and full of joy and laughter. It's very quiet and focused that we need to change things very quickly and Saturday's the next opportunity. We're in a difficult moment.

"If you get beat and you will feel you deserve it and they were better than you as a regular and consistent thing you've got concerns. But I don't think that's been the case, I think the last three games there has been a steady turnaround where we are able to control games, have between 15 and 25 shots, create lots of goalscoring chances.

"Yet for whatever reason it hasn't come to fruition, we have to keep working harder and getting better at it."