JEROME Thomas has called on Albion fans to keep faith with the team as they look to bounce back from Saturday's disappointing 6-0 defeat at Chelsea.
The Baggies winger is urging everyone associated with the club not to dwell on the Stamford Bridge reverse and focus on the first home game of the campaign against Sunderland on Saturday (ko 3pm).
And he hopes the Hawthorns hordes will help make it an uncomfortable afternoon for the Mackems.
"They have to stay behind us," said Thomas.
"Negative energy isn't going to help and we didn't go out planning to lose.
"We are going to have to pick ourselves up and hopefully we can put a performance in on Saturday.
"It was a harsh scoreline but you make mistakes and you get punished at this level, especially against a team like Chelsea with the calibre of player they have got.
"Hopefully we will learn from that and tweak little things to make sure we don't make the same mistakes in future.
"The lads will be fine.
"We've got a good bunch of players and no-one is too down.
"We're all disappointed but it's the first game of the season and there are many more to go."
Preparation for Saturday's game will begin tomorrow and Thomas insists no-one will let heads drop, including skipper Scott Carson, who will be eager to make amends for his error that led to Chelsea's opening goal.
"He is obviously upset but he has to pick himself up, especially as he is the skipper - that's his job," the winger added.
"He won't dwell on it and none of us can afford to.
"We've got to focus on Saturday's game now and Sunderland at home and start focusing on that.
"We will crack on from Tuesday and we have to put it behind us.
"They are all huge games, especially looking at the results.
"Blackpool and Wolves won at the weekend and these are the kind of teams we are going to be competing against.
"We need to get our first win under our belt, hopefully starting on Saturday."
