Baggies boss Tony Mowbray is remaining positive despite Albion's defeat at Wigan leaving them propping up the table for another week. After Saturday's 2-1 loss at the JJB the former Hibs chief took great heart after being informed that Wigan were two points behind the Baggies' current total at this stage last season and still ended up finishing in 14th place last term.
The season before last it was Portsmouth's turn, with Albion goalkeeper Dean Kiely between the posts, who pulled off their own great escape after seemingly being odds-on to a return to the Championship beating Wigan on the final day of the season - a season after Albion were the first club to avoid relegation after finding themselves bottom at Christmas.
"There's lots of clubs who have been in our position and ended up doing okay," Mowbray insisted.
"I was only talking to Dean recently about when he stayed up with Portsmouth.
"If we were a hopeless team that didn't look like scoring and were getting battered every week, we'd be sitting here thinking 'we just haven't got enough quality, we're really struggling here'.
"But I don't think that's the case."
Albion skipper Jonathan Greening reiterated his boss' thoughts by insisting the current squad has far more quality that the squad which avoided relegation in 2005, but insisted defensive errors must be cut out - and quickly.
"We were the first team to be bottom of the Premier League at Christmas and stay up at the end," the midfielder said.
"We know it can be done.
"We've got the players to do that and we're playing better football this time than we did then.
"Why can't we do it?
"We need a little bit of luck, a few things to go our way and hopefully that can start soon.
"You just have to keep your chin up and go again.
He continued: "We all believe in the gaffer and in each other and we need to stay strong as a team and look ahead to the next game.
"It is deflating when you play well and have so many chances and don't get anything out of the game but we just have to believe in what we're doing.
"Performances haven't been too bad.
"We just need to get the results right by cutting out sloppy mistakes and keeping it going.
"We need to bounce back with a good week's training and try to come back against Portsmouth."