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Bilić ready for new chapter in promotion chase

Slaven Bilić says Albion must find their “spark” in order to return to the form that saw them lead the way in the Sky Bet Championship.

The Baggies are winless in seven league fixtures ahead of Saturday’s Hawthorns clash with Luton Town.

And the boss insists his side must “open a new page” in their promotion-chasing story. 

“Our performances have slipped, it happens to every club,” Slaven said. “It’s happened to us and tomorrow is a great opportunity to open a new page, or to go back to the page we were on for such a long time.

“We have to believe and we have to work hard. We must analyse our games and the situation, we have to be open to each other. We have to have meetings where we hear from everybody. We’ve done all of that. You must not stop believing. We need to get our spark back.

“Our belief is always there, but confidence is different. Confidence goes up and down. That happens in games, never mind over a season. The confidence is not as high as it once was but the belief is always there.”

On Saturday’s opponents Luton, he added: “We have respect for them, they won their last game. They are a good team. But we can’t think ‘did they win their last game? Are they bottom of the league?’.

“They are a good Championship side who play nice football with intensity. We are expecting a tough game but we are expecting that we have to show our quality, we have to show character and togetherness. If we do all that we’ll be in a good position to get three points.”

Bilić believes Callum Robinson and Kamil Grosicki, who arrived at The Hawthorns this week, will bring further quality to his squad.

He added: “This team, the core of the team that’s been here since August, has quality. New players have come in for a reason but they are here to add to the quality, not bring the quality. They are adding quality to an already good side.”

“Grosicki is basically the complete player and he is proven in the Championship, he’s played at the World Cup. All the ingredients are there.

“With Callum, I also like his quality, his determination, I like everything that he brings.

“They were both targets of ours in the summer so we know a lot about them.”

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