And defender calls on players to take responsibility
STEVEN Reid has called on the senior players in the Albion squad to draw on all their experience to help guide the club through the transition between head coaches.
The Baggies defender is one of eight players in the Baggies dressing room aged 30 or over, with Ben Foster, Jonas Olsson, Boaz Myhill, Diego Lugano, Zoltan Gera, Gareth McAuley and Nicolas Anelka also in the same bracket.
And he believes it is a wealth of know-how they must tap into as they face up to four games in 11 days – starting with Hull on Saturday (ko 3pm).
"There is a big group of us now who are over 30,” said the 32-year-old.
“I think we are going to play a big part as well.
“It's important as experienced players you try and look after things in the dressing room a little bit.
"I think senior players and experienced players have a massive part to play in how the dressing room runs.
"I've seen it at other clubs over the years if you lose the dressing room you are in big trouble.
"I think we've got a good enough group in terms of experience to see this difficult period through.
"As a dressing room, as staff and as players we all need to get together and help and support each other through this.”
Following Saturday’s clash with the Tigers the Baggies face a London double-header against Tottenham and West Ham before returning to the Black Country for a New Year’s Day encounter with Newcastle.
It is a crucial period as they look to climb the table from 16th spot under the current leadership of caretaker head coach Keith Downing.
Reid added: “This is probably the first wobble we've had for the last few years.
“We've had relative success and now we find ourselves on the end of four straight defeats.
“We have to look at ourselves as players and ask if we've done enough.
“We know what this squad is capable of - we finished eighth last season, our highest Premier League finish, and to be where we are now, yes we need to take responsibility.
“If some of the players haven't done enough then now is the time to step it up.
“If we don't start getting results you find yourselves in a position where it becomes quite difficult to get out of.
"We are not in that position yet.
"We still feel we have a few games coming up over Christmas we can get good results out of.
"There is still full confidence we will get out of it but we need to realise the situation we are in and turn it round as soon as possible."