Matt Clarke hurting from West Brom's troubles

The Baggies looked certainties to finish in the play-offs at the start of February.

But they now sit firmly in a mid-table having won just three of their last 17 games.

And Clarke admits that is not good enough for a team who began the campaign with aspirations of winning automatic promotion.

“When you look at the table at the moment, it’s so frustrating to see ourselves so far down,” the defender said.

“That hurts. We want to be towards the top end of it and for the majority of the season we have been there or thereabouts.

“To have dropped to where we have isn’t nice.

“We’re not stupid, we’ve got what we’ve deserved during previous games because we haven’t been good enough.

“We deserved to drop down because our level of performance hasn’t been there in recent months.

“But we know we have got a lot of good players here. And there’s people coming back from injury too.

“We know we have to play a lot better.

“But if we can get some momentum there’s no reason why we can’t climb the table.”

Meanwhile, former Albion boss Valerien Ismael has been confirmed as the new head coach of Besiktas.

The Black Eagles won the Turkish league for the 16th time last season but are currently eighth in the Super Lig.

Ismael has put pen to paper on a two-year contract with the Istanbul-based club – which includes the option for a further year.