Ryan Mason insists the Baggies will be doing all they can to “flip the pain” of last weekend’s disappointing defeat at home to Derby when they travel to Middlesbrough on Friday night (ko 8pm).
Albion take on the early table-toppers under the lights at the Riverside Stadium in what will be the sixth Sky Bet Championship showdown of the season.
Mason’s men suffered their first league loss in their most recent fixture with the Rams and the boss believes his players are more than capable of producing a positive reaction up north.
Ryan said: “Training this week has been good, for sure. A result like that last weekend against Derby, it’s tough to get out of the system until you play another game. Hopefully, we can put in a good performance on Friday night and get a positive result.
“It’s important that the players feel the pain of a defeat, as well as the staff. It hurt, but that’s a normal feeling when you lose a game – it always hurts. We need to remember that feeling.
“When you lose games, you want a reaction. We want to try and flip the pain of last weekend as quickly as possible and we’ll be doing all we can to do that on Friday.
“Our target is to try and win every game, but we know that’s not always going to happen, of course it isn’t. There are so many games in this league and so many opportunities to try and pick up results.
“The reality is, when we came in we needed to win more games than we did last season. The club didn’t win anywhere near enough games to be competitive at the top of the table. That’s the challenge.
“We understand there’s going to be moments where we have to react to defeats, and that’s a moment we’re in right now.”
Boro have made a blistering start to the second-tier term, winning four and drawing one of their opening five fixtures.
Mason insists the hosts are in a really positive moment, but believes the Baggies have enough quality within the ranks to go to Teesside and leave with points in the bag.
He said: “We’re going up to play a team who are at the top of the league and in a really good moment.
“It’s under the lights on a Friday night which adds a bit of spice to it. We’ll go there fully prepared, it’s going to be a good game and we’re excited for it.
“It’s going to be a difficult match and we understand the moment Middlesbrough are in, but we have to go there full of confidence and belief in our own game and attack it as much as possible.
“They’re a really good team with really good individuals and a coach in Rob Edwards who has experience of getting out of this league and has managed at the top level as well.
“We understand it’ll be tough, but we go into every game believing in ourselves and this one will be no different. We’re up for it, we want a reaction and we want all three points.”
