Davies: "We can't seem to beat the teams in and around us to pull away."

CURTIS Davies is hoping Albion's impressive form against the Barclays Premiership's big teams continues against Chelsea on Saturday after yesterday's (Sunday) 2-0 reverse to Middlesbrough sentenced them to yet another defeat by their relegation rivals.

The Baggies centre-half was left ruing defensive mistakes that gifted Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink a first-half double and allowed Boro to open up a five-point gap on Bryan Robson's 17^th-placed men.

And, although Albion have recorded seven victories this term, only two have come against sides in the bottom half of the table.

"We had a lot of chances that we couldn't take but at the end of the day we can't afford to give a team two goals in the first half and then decide to play in the second half," he said.

"I think the lads thought he was off-side for the first goal - I'm not sure if he was - and then the second one was a deflection.

"It's a big blow and it's the same again in that we can't seem to beat the teams in and around us to pull away.

"That's seemed to be the problem all season and it was the same yesterday.

"We've still got to play Blues and Villa, which are big games anyway being derbies, and are even bigger now because we really need the points."

Davies will be hoping to bag his first England Under-21s cap tomorrow against Norway at the Madejski Stadium before returning to tackle Jose Mourinho's runaway leaders at The Hawthorns.

Albion now lie just three points above 18^th-placed Blues, who have a game in hand, and have a testing March fixture list which includes home games against Chelsea and Manchester United and trips to Steve Bruce's men and Tottenham.

"We've got to go into these big games against Chelsea and Manchester United and try and get something out of them," the £3million summer signing added.

"We managed to beat Arsenal and Tottenham but at the end of the day Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool are different teams so it depends how we apply ourselves.

"If you look at the table it looks like us, Blues and Portsmouth will fight it out but it's not over yet and there are other teams that can still mathematically be dragged into it.

"As long as we can start picking up points I can't see why that can't happen.

"Blues are now just three points behind, with a game in hand, and our goal difference has slipped.

"We need to make sure we don't lose to Blues and keep them at arm's length.

"At one point this season it looked like we might pull away with our form, unfortunately we've started to slide again."

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