James Morrison: Friday game chance for West Brom to ramp up pressure

The Baggies host Birmingham City at The Hawthorns, and are searching for their third straight win under caretaker boss James Shan.

If they win, Albion can cut the gap to the automatic promotion spots to four points before all three clubs ahead of them play on Saturday.

“Going first helps put pressure on the teams at the top,” said Morrison. “That’s what we’ve got to do now. It’s pretty obvious what our job is.

“Our job in hand is to win every game and go on a run and see where it takes us.”

Albion won back-to-back games under Shan before the international break, and Morrison said the squad wanted another game as quick as possible.

“We’ve had a bit of rest but we wanted to keep going I think,” he said. “Keep the momentum. We’ve got a perfect game to go into on Friday night, three points will be massive.

“We’ve all been focused this week and we’ve had really good training sessions, we’re all raring to go.”

Blues arrive at The Hawthorns off the back of four straight defeats and having just received a nine-point deduction from the EFL that has left them five points above the drop zone.

“They’ll be a wounded beast after the deduction they’ve had,” said Morrison. “They’ll be keen to put it right against a team pushing for promotion.

“We’ll have to be patient and take our chances when they come.”

Morrison was reinstated into the line-up against Brentford last time out, and helped the Baggies to a 1-0 win.

“It was nice to be involved but we’ve got a huge squad and we want everybody to be a part of it,” he said. “I’m ready and waiting to play if called upon, it would be nice.”

The long-serving midfielder does have a happy history against Blues, having scored in a 3-1 win at St Andrew’s in March 2011.

“That was a nice left foot volley against Ben Foster in goal!” he said. “A repeat of that would be nice.

“We need to change our home form, we can be helped by the fans if they really get behind us and be patient with us.”