Mowbray prepares for West Brom's next campaign

Apr 13 2009 By Chris Lepkowski

PORTSMOUTH 2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2

Tony Mowbray has promised to bring West Bromwich Albion back to the Premier League better and stronger after near-enough admitting defeat in his bid to keep the club up.

The Baggies produced an impressive display at Portsmouth but the result did little for their survival prospects. They are seven points from safety with a poor goal difference and only six games left to play.

Mowbray may not admit it yet, but privately he is already preparing for next season’s assault on the Championship. And the Albion manager intends to stick by his philosophies and keep as many players as he can.

“The disappointment is that if we drop out of this league we are going to lose a little bit of the progress we’ve made,” he said.

“Whereas I feel if we could stay in this league it would be so much better next year because we would be able to add one or two quality players and go to places like Portsmouth and let them know they’re in a real match.

“I think we’ll give ourselves a better chance if we try to play our way through this period and if the worst comes to the worst we will keep going in the Championship.

“Hopefully we will do the same as we did last year and play our way out of the Championship.

“Maybe we can come back with a good crop of players who have been through this experience this year and know what it takes and hopefully a coach, if he’s still here,