Albion captain Jonathan Greening is under no illusion of the importance of Saturday's match to The Stadium of Light calling the game against bottom placed Baggies and 18th placed Sunderland "massive".
The Baggies travel to Wearside only three points behind the Black Cats who have only won twice at home this season. And despite losing on their travels to Wigan and Stoke courtesy of late goals, Greening insists nobody in the Baggies camp holds any worries ahead of the six-pointer on Saturday (KO 3pm).
"We have a massive game this week against Sunderland who are close to us," the former Manchester United midfielder said.
"We need to put on a good performance.
"We have no fears going away and if anything it can help us because teams have to attack us and that gives us the breakaway option.
"Sunderland have not got a manager at the moment and it's a massive game for both clubs."
Big spending Sunderland has had mixed fortunes since the Baggies last visited The Stadium of Light which coincided with the beginning of the Roy Keane era and a defeat for Albion under Bryan Robson in Keane's first game in charge. Now, after the home side's first fixture on home soil since the Irishman's departure, Greening is hoping for a different result than the last time the Baggies visited.
"It's probably a hindrance when a new manager comes in because the players want to show what they can do, which is exactly what happened the last time we played there when Roy Keane took over!" he continued.
"All the players probably raise their game 20 or 30 per cent.
"Every time I've played against a team who have appointed a manager it's hard because they're up for it.
"Fingers crossed it won't happen again."