Luke Dowling: West Brom are good enough to stay up

Allardyce was announced as the Baggies new head coach on Wednesday just hours after the club confirmed the departure of Slaven Bilic.

With a squad still very similar to the one that won promotion in July, fans and pundits have questioned whether Albion have the quality that's needed to avoid relegation from the top flight.

But after appointing survival expert Allardyce, Dowling believes the Baggies are now in with a much stronger chance of staying up.

"Is it a gamble? No," Dowling said when asked about Allardyce's appointment.

"This is the eighth Premier League club Sam has managed and he has been successful at every single one of them.

"We don’t anticipate any change in that, not with his hard work and the team he has behind him.

"In terms of the squad, does it lack some Premier League experience? There will be people who say yes.

"But Sam looked at the squad before he came here and I’m sure if he felt there needed to be massive changes he wouldn’t be here now.

"Sam believes there is something here to work with which gives us amazing confidence as a club.

"We believe in the players that are here as well. And with Sam and his backroom staff, plus some additions in January, we believe we will go in the right direction."

Bilic has earned a place in the hearts of Albion's fans for the way he guided the team to promotion last term.

But his departure ended distastefully with multiple media outlets announcing he was going to be sacked shortly after Tuesday's 1-1 draw at Man City.

It meant Bilic found out from in press, rather than the club, he was to be sacked the following morning.

The Express & Star understands it was the agent of another managerial candidate Albion spoke to who leaked the news Bilic was to be dismissed.

Dowling admits relieving the Croatian of his duties was a very hard thing to do.

But he said the club had to act quickly once they knew Allardyce was interested in the job.

"It was a difficult decision," Dowling said when asked about Bilic's departure.

"If you find yourself enjoying that side of it – that tells you what you are like as a person.

"Every year it is important to stay in the Premier League but this year – with everything that has happened – it is even more so.

"You can keep letting games come and go and then results drift away – and then the man you want might not be around.

"The man we have got is the man we wanted. We couldn’t turn that opportunity down.

"It’s obvious I have been aware of the reaction because we did get go and get a good point at Manchester CIty.

"But as a business we can’t act on emotion. We have to make decisions and be firm with them.

"There is a little bit of speculation about how we did and didn’t do things with Slaven. But we acted as professionally as we could.

"In football you have to move on and with Sam in the club, we feel we have a great chance."