James Morrison insists Albion are determined to not allow their high standards to drop in the final two fixtures of the 2025/26 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
The Baggies head into Saturday lunchtime’s showdown with automatic-promotion chasing Ipswich Town on a nine-match unbeaten run and on the back of consecutive victories over Preston North End and Watford.
Albion have picked up 17 points in those nine games and are the team who have conceded the fewest amount of goals during that period.
Morrison says his players will arrive at The Hawthorns in incredibly positive spirits, but stressed the need to maintain the same level of focus, concentration and belief that has served them so well since the start of March.
The interim head coach said: “We’ve got our last home game of the season on Saturday and we’re going into it in really high spirits.
“We have to use that mood to help us on Saturday. We can’t come off it and let the standard of our performance drop.
“I’ve been on to the lads today, reminding them of their duty and our desire to finish the season in really strong fashion. I know for a fact that I didn’t need to mention it. They’re professionals and they’re enjoying their football.
“It’s up to the players to manage the good feeling that they’ve had over the last seven weeks or so. There’s no better feeling in football than when you’re winning and everyone wants that feeling to continue.
“We work hard for that feeling, and, when you win, you get the rewards. We’ve got to keep working hard and hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate two more wins before the end of the season.”
The clash with the Baggies is the first of three remaining second-tier encounters for the visiting Tractor Boys.
Kieran McKenna’s Town know they’ll be playing Premier League football next term if they were to win all three.
Speaking specifically about this weekend’s opponents at Friday lunchtime's pre-match press conference at The Fitlife Foods Performance Centre, Morrison added: “We’ve got Ipswich coming to The Hawthorns and we know it’s going to be a really tough match. I’ve watched them over the last couple of games and they’ve really impressed me.
“We’ll have to be very detailed in what we do and we’ll try and hurt them in certain types of ways. It’s a really big challenge for us.
“They’re in a pressurised situation – they’re fighting for promotion to the Premier League. We’ve got to try and capitalise on that. They were away at Charlton on Wednesday and now they’ll be away again. We know, from our own experience, how tough that can be.
“We’ve had an extra day to prepare compared to them, so we need to make sure we utilise that.
“We obviously know a lot about some of their players, the ones who were with us previously. It will be nice to see them all, but we want to make sure we’re the ones coming away with the points.
“It’s an early kick-off and it’s on television. I’m sure it’ll be a great occasion.”
