ALBION tackle the third challenge of their festive schedule on Saturday determined to follow in the footsteps of their promotion predecessors.
Head Coach Darren Moore acknowledges his team's consistency will be the key to their hopes of keeping the heat on Sky Bet Championship leaders Leeds United and Norwich City.
The Baggies face Sheffield Wednesday at a packed Hawthorns on the back of an unbeaten eight-game run which has yielded six wins and two draws.
It’s an echo of the kind of sequence that featured in each of Albion’s four previous promotions to the Premier League and Darren acknowledges his team of 2018 must repeat the same kind of consistency if they are to reach their goal.
“If we’re going to have any successful season we have to have a level of consistency and a level of application in every single game,” he told WBA TV in the build-up to the Owls clash.
“We as a club have been showing that over recent months and long may it continue. But we know we cannot rest on our laurels.
“It’s always on to the next challenge. And we’ve got another tough game and difficult test that we will have to be at our best to overcome.”
Albion will be facing a visiting team transformed in mood by change at the top which saw Jos Luhukay replaced by interim boss Lee Bullen to immediate and positive effect. The Owls have since beaten Preston and Middlesbrough by a solitary goal and, says Darren, will present a very different challenge in the wake of this mood swing.
“They’re a different outfit now,” he added. “A new manager is in and he’s had an effect over the last couple of games. I should imagine confidence is back in the club and they will be a difficult outfit to face.
“They will present a different style, a different team and another stern test for us, one who will present new problems for us to overcome.”
Albion’s form in that unbeaten sequence is underlined by the “for” and “against” tally with19 scored and just seven conceded.
Successive clean sheets have been welcomed in the festive results against Rotherham and Wigan and Darren said: “We enjoy working on aspects of the game in training when the team is in possession in terms of the chances we want to create.
“But we’re also working on our game off the ball, trying to make us more solid and hard-to-beat and we have had our rewards for that in the last couple of games."