West Bromwich Albion

West Bromwich Albion's improvement has come after some honest conversations among the players, says goalkeeper Max O'Leary.

The Baggies have earned successive goalless draws to move two points clear of the Championship relegation zone and the former Bristol City keeper says they are the result of discussions following a 3-0 loss at Portsmouth.

"We've had some honest discussions with each other. The Pompey game wasn't good enough, we all knew that," O'Leary told BBC Radio WM.

"It doesn't matter what formation we play, [it's about] just getting the principles right and everyone putting that maximum effort in and looking in the mirror and saying 'I gave everything today'.

"I like to think I'm a fresh voice coming in and seeing it from a different perspective is what you need sometimes, and I'm not afraid to have conversations with people about what's gong on and how we can try to improve together."

The 29-year-old has played all four league games for West Brom since moving to The Hawthorns on a short-term deal in January and has helped them keep successive clean sheets for the first time since October 2024.

"It gives us a foundation to build on. You're in the game if it's 0-0 and we keep that clean sheet," O'Leary added.

"I've only been here a few games, to get something from the game puts you in good stead. You're in the game at half-time, in the 70th and 80th minute and then you can maybe go and nick a goal."

West Brom visit Norwich in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

West Bromwich Albion are showing progress, according to head coach Eric Ramsay.

The Baggies have moved two points clear of the Championship relegation zone after a 0-0 draw at Birmingham City on Tuesday night.

"It is real progress and I said to the players at the end this is what is required between now and the end of the year," Ramsay told BBC Radio WM.

"I can't guarantee we will be a team who will play with real fluidity and we are going to be a team that finds itself in real flow but what I hope to be able to guarantee is that we will run in the way we did and show that desperation to keep that ball out of the back of the net."

Albion are yet to win any of Ramsay's six games in charge, drawing three and losing three but they are now unbeaten in their past two Championship matches after a goalless draw with Stoke at the weekend.

"We backed up Saturday's performance really well and showed a lot of the same characteristics but I would say we went on another level in terms of the front footedness, the way in which we were able to turn the ball over in their first third and aggression, organisation and will to win," he added.

"I have to tip my hat to the players. They have a really deep squad – you saw what they brought off the bench – but I feel we went toe-to-toe and yes the last five or six minutes felt frantic but if you strip away those we were really good value for the point."

West Brom visit Norwich in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

West Bromwich Albion forward Daryl Dike says he is living the dream despite struggling for game time this season.

The 25-year-old made his first start for nine months in Saturday's goalless draw with Stoke in the Championship after 10 substitute appearances this season.

"For me it's been a little bit frustrating because I haven't been able to help as much as I'd have liked to, but at the end of the day I always tell myself no matter what the situation is, control what I can control," Dike told BBC Radio WM.

"I always train my hardest and make sure I take care of my body and I tell myself the chance will come as long as I keep pushing and doing things, everything will work out in your favour.

"For me, I'm living the dream. I know sometimes the dream looks a little different, but I'm still living the dream and I can't complain."

The American has scored nine goals in 54 appearances since joining the Baggies from MLS side Orlando four years ago and is out of contract in the summer.

Dike has had to impress a succession of new bosses since arriving at the Hawthorns, and is now playing under his sixth permanent head coach, but remains philosophical about game time.

"Every manager puts out squads that are going to give us results and, as I said, I just control what I can control," he added.

"I'm a footballer, I always want to play, so it's just how it happens."

Birmingham City will be eyeing a potential spot in the top six as they welcome West Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion for Tuesday's headline act (20:00 GMT).

With just two points keeping them out of the play-off positions, Blues will be eager to exploit their home advantage to advance their promotion push against a Baggies side that have struggled on the road this season.

Albion themselves will feel they have a lot to play for though, with boss Eric Ramsay still seeking his first victory after his appointment in January and a goalless draw on the weekend keeping them out of the bottom three by just a single point.

• Birmingham City have won each of their last three home league games against West Bromwich Albion, only once before going on a longer winning run at home versus the Baggies in the Football League, winning six straight between April 1938 and April 1957.

• West Bromwich Albion have only won one of their last seven league matches away to fellow West Midlands sides (L6), beating Coventry City 2-0 in October 2023.

• Birmingham City have won eight of their nine midweek home games in the league under Chris Davies (Tue/Wed/Thu – D1), keeping seven clean sheets and scoring at least twice in eight of those matches.

• No team have lost more away games in England's top four tiers in the 2025-26 season than West Bromwich Albion (P16 W3 D1 L12), with the Baggies last losing more times on the road in a league campaign back in 2008-09 in the Premier League (13).

• Since the start of last season, Birmingham City have suffered fewer home defeats than any other side in England's top four tiers (1), while only Bradford City (27) have picked up more home wins than their 26.

West Bromwich Albion boss Eric Ramsay has praised his side's performance in their goalless stalemate with Stoke City on Saturday after lifting themselves out of the relegation zone.

The draw at the Bet365 Stadium was just the second point earned for the Baggies since Ramsay took the reins in January.

But despite still seeking a first win, it was enough to takes the side from 22nd to 20th on the Championship table ahead of Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City.

"Reflecting on the game, other than the result, it was what we wanted," Ramsay told BBC Radio WM. "We wanted to make sure that the performance felt different, and I'm in no doubt it did. The first half was very good.

"What was lacking at Portsmouth wasn't lacking today, and the fact we were able to get a first clean sheet in 11… we looked a team who were desperate to keep the ball out of the net. That's exactly what was required.

"We have set out to become a difficult team to beat and to play against. That hasn't been the case in the first four games [under me], but it has today.

"It wasn't a spectacular performance. We were lacking in terms of how much we could create, but the clean sheet and lack of chances we gave away, they were important ingredients in our performance."

Image source, Shutterstock

West Bromwich Albion cannot become fixated on their position in the Championship table, according to head coach Eric Ramsay.

The Baggies go into Saturday's match at home to Stoke City (15:01 GMT) in the relegation zone after failing to win any of Ramsay's four league games in charge, losing three of them.

"That is something that I'll always keep at bay. The state of the table is meaningless to me from the perspective of the messages I give to the players and the way in which we prepare for an individual game," he told BBC Radio WM.

"You have to have that laser focus on the day-to-day because otherwise the whole situation starts to feel too heavy."

West Brom have announced former managing director Mark Miles has returned to the club as executive director, following confirmation of sporting director Andrew Nestor's departure from The Hawthorns.

But Ramsay says he has not had time to think about what those changes will mean to the team in the long term.

"It wasn't something I'd anticipated coming so soon but not something I've been able to give loads of thought to," he said

"Once there is time to breathe maybe it's something I'll be able to reflect on."

Steve Hermon
BBC Radio WM's West Bromwich Albion commentator

Image source, Getty Images

The brevity of statements from both West Bromwich Albion and Andrew Nestor will tell you all you need to know about the state of the relationship that had broken down behind the scenes at the Hawthorns.

They have both wished each other well, and the parting is officially by 'mutual agreement', but tensions boiled over to the point that the American hadn't attended a Baggies game since December.

I understand he was reluctant to sack Ryan Mason, but it certainly was his decision to appoint the former Spurs assistant last summer, and it's just one of the reasons why he has departed. The fact the American was given the title 'President' also rankled with many, and not just the fanbase.

It's been a chaotic mess, but they're now not messing around in a bid to save their season with the team sitting in the Championship relegation zone.

Nestor's rise to a presidential role in September last year coincided with the departure of Mark Miles. He guided the ship through the financially disastrous reign of Guochuan Lai and was instrumental in getting Shilen Patel's takeover of the club over the line in February 2024.

Miles, who had served the club in multiple roles for 22 years, is now back five months later as executive director, reporting directly to the owner and chairman.

The Baggies are in the process of appointing more 'football people', with Maccabi Tel Aviv technical director and former Liverpool analyst Dominic Price being linked with a senior off-field role. But for now, they're hoping Miles' experience and leadership will offer stability and help guide them to a much better place.

That's something they also need on the field, with the better place in the short term being staying in the second tier. If head coach Eric Ramsay and his players can do that, it will give owners Bilkul a chance to regroup and rebuild after multiple missteps set them off course.

West Brom go into Saturday's game having taken only one point from their four matches under new boss Eric Ramsay with their last Championship victory coming on 29 December at home to QPR.

Stoke's four-game winless run means they have dropped to 12th place, five points short of the play-off places.

• West Brom are unbeaten in their past seven league games against Stoke (W4 D3), having lost three in a row against them before this.

• Stoke have lost just one of their past five away league games against West Brom (W2 D2), going down 2-0 in November 2022.

• Only bottom side Sheffield Wednesday (21) have lost more Championship games than West Brom this season (16). The Baggies last lost more in a full second tier campaign in 1999-00 (17).

• Only Sheffield Wednesday (17) and Oxford (12) have failed to score in more different Championship games than Stoke City this season (11).

• Since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, no player has provided more assists in the Championship than Stoke City's Sorba Thomas (34, level with Gustavo Hamer).

West Bromwich Albion need their owners to provide strong leadership during their current Championship struggles, according to former Baggies striker Hal Robson-Kanu.

Albion are third from bottom after losing five games in a six-match winless league run and Robson-Kanu says those running the club have to lead from the front.

Eric Ramsay was appointed head coach in January to succeed Ryan Mason but Andrew Nestor is set to leave the club as sporting director and president, amid tensions and uncertainty behind the scenes.

"I'm surprised [they are struggling], given the size of the club but at the same time the Championship in particular is a league in which you will finish where you deserve to," he told BBC Radio WM.

"My final season in professional football was in the Premier League with West Brom and the club needs real strong ownership, a strong direction, a real strong vision and needs to bring together a squad which is passionate about a common goal to excite and reward the fans for their loyalty.

"The reality is since that 2021 season it hasn't happened and hasn't been in place."

The former Wales forward spent five years at The Hawthorns, scoring 21 league goals in 53 starts and helping them win promotion to the Premier League in 2020.

"When you look at the success or failures a club has it always starts at the top so you need that authentic, genuine, visionary ownership to inspire people, players and a fanbase to get behind the team to win games," added Robson-Kanu.

West Brom face Stoke City in the Championship on Saturday (15:01 GMT).

Chris Hall
Fan writer

Image source, Shutterstock

Relegation to the third tier of English football should be virtually unimaginable for West Bromwich Albion.

Afterall, it has only happened once before, back in 1990/91.

But, with the Baggies tumbling into the Championship's bottom three courtesy of Blackburn's win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night, there's a very real possibility that history could repeat itself some 35-years on.

Most casual observers seem bemused by Albion's plight.

A glance at our squad list shows a number of full internationals and a wealth of seasoned Championship pros whose combined talents should be more than capable of seeing The Throstles clear of trouble.

Yet all that ability and experience have amounted to very little of late.

It's not just that Albion are in trouble, it's that they are showing virtually no signs of life.

The Baggies are second bottom in the Championship form table for the last 12 games, only above beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday, and two of the last three games have been nothing short of a complete capitulation.

Fixtures at home to then 22nd placed Norwich and 21st placed Portsmouth should have represented opportunities for Albion to put daylight between themselves and the bottom three.

Instead, they turned into morale-boosting wins for The Baggies' relegation rivals, which also decimated Albion's goal difference, as they lost the two key clashes by an aggregate score of 8-0.

Fans let their feelings be known after both defeats, and some players took exception to that as Isaac Price had to be dragged away from confronting his own supporters at Fratton Park.

Then, that was followed a day later by rumours of a total lack of alignment between President Andrew Nestor and others in the Albion hierarchy, as both parties appeared to try to distance themselves from the appointment of the current boss, Eric Ramsay. Hardly a vote of confidence in the Welshman.

Ramsay is, strategically, a strange appointment given Albion's predicament.

The Baggies squad had clearly been built to play a 4-2-3-1 under previous boss Ryan Mason, but Ramsay, an advocate of three centre-halves at previous club Minnesota United, was always likely to try and change the shape, and so it transpired, with disastrous results.

Without the players to play his system (pacey forwards, naturalised wing-backs and centre-halves with the pace to recover) Ramsay's tactics were left horrendously exposed, and he eventually abandoned his much maligned back five at half-time at Portsmouth, ironically, after the club had stretched their finances a day earlier to bring him in a right wing-back.

Albion's precarious PSR position was always going to mean there would be little latitude to turn over the squad to ensure it was better suited to Ramsay, another fact that made the appointment odd.

However, they did manage to do a little extra late business on deadline day, placing their survival hopes in the hands of two 19-year-olds: Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba from Aston Villa and Hindola Mustapha from Crystal Palace.

All told, Albion's activities over the past month feel desperate, disparate and lacking in real strategy.

What's done is done now, but if a great escape from the hole we have dug for ourselves is to occur, then it will require everyone to get on the same page: management, players, board members and fans.

That has not been the case of late, and unless everyone at the club shows a bit more unity and learns to pull in the same direction, this season will only end one way for Albion.

Listen to more from Chris Hall at the Albion Analysis, external

Steve Hermon
BBC Radio WM's West Bromwich Albion commentator

Image source, Getty Images

West Bromich Albion's deadline day business reflects the alarming situation the club currently finds itself in.

It's largely been caused by the financial mess the owners inherited from the previous regime but it's also the result of recent chaos behind the scenes. The acrimonious departure of sporting director and president Andrew Nestor emerged on the eve of the window closing and now they've gambled their Championship future on two 19-year-olds from Premier League academies.

American Nestor had already distanced himself from recruitment duties in a bid to rescue his reputation but not before spelling out in a pre-Christmas open letter why they wouldn't be able to shop at the high end of the market.

That was of course due to the ongoing challenge of complying with profit and sustainability rules so the lack of activity is understandable. But fans would've hoped for more than having to throw two teenagers into the deep end of a relegation battle.

I don't mean offence to Hindolo Mustapha and Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba. I'm sure the attack-minded pair are bright prospects full of confidence and desire to impress - however, it's unfair to expect them to provide the boost the Baggies desperately need right now.

Albion do at least know all about Jimoh-Aloba, having nurtured his talent from the age of six until he left to join Aston Villa in 2023.

The forward returns with a European goal on his CV, which he notched in last week's win over RB Salzburg, but that was only his sixth first-team appearance. That's six more than midfielder Mustapha has made for Crystal Palace.

Right wing-back Danny Imray also arrived last week without a senior appearance to his name for the South London side. He only made his Championship debut in the dismal 3-0 loss at Portsmouth on Saturday.

Having to turn to an inexperienced trio at this level to save their season will lead supporters to ask why multiple managers haven't shown more faith in their own youngsters.

Harry Whitwell had a successful loan - albeit in the National League at Forest Green - but hasn't featured in the league since being recalled and 18-year-old Ollie Bostock has been an unused member of matchday squads throughout the season.

The one real opportunity the Lichfield lad did get saw him named man of the match in their FA Cup victory at Swansea last month. That came just hours before Eric Ramsay was appointed as head coach.

The 34-year-old boss worked with top youngsters at Chelsea so hopefully he can get the best out of his new recruits, but he also needs to get a tune out of the experienced players he inherited.

They've shown no signs of being comfortable with the Welshman's style of play so far and more concerning, they lacked fight in their most recent defeat at Fratton Park.

All of this won't reassure fans, who fear their beloved Baggies could soon drop into the third tier of English football for only the second time in their history.

Image source, Getty Images

Today is the final chance of the season for your Championship team to do transfer business.

The window closes at 19:00 GMT, meaning teams - and fans - can avoid the usual late-night transfer scramble.

It has already been a busy window - for some teams anyway - but whether it turns out to be a day of transfer action or a pretty quiet one for your club, you will be able to keep across it all on BBC Sport.

Follow our live text coverage throughout the day here

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa's Samuel Iling Junior has cut short his loan at West Bromwich Albion to move to Pisa in Serie A.

The winger has spent the first half of the season at the Baggies in the Championship.

He scored once in 24 games but now moves to Pisa to help them in their relegation fight with the club second bottom of Serie A.

Iling Junior has previously played for Juventus and Bologna in Italy.

The Baggies - 21st and three points above the Championship relegation zone - have replaced him with Aston Villa team-mate Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba.

Preston were also keen to take the 19-year-old on loan but Jimoh-Aloba wants to help the Baggies' relegation fight and has opted to return to the club over North End, while Leicester City also enquired.

Attacker Jimoh-Aloba came through the academy at The Hawthorns before moving to Villa in 2023.

He made his Premier League debut last month and scored Villa's winner in the 3-2 comeback victory over Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League last week.

Joshua Adu-Donkor
5 Live reporter

Image source, Rex Features

Another bad day for West Brom and head coach Eric Ramsay.

The 3-0 loss at Portsmouth was Ramsay's third in his first four league games in charge.

Since arriving in early January, Ramsay has implemented a 3-4-3 formation, which was heavily exposed against Pompey so it may be time to go back to basics to achieve results in the coming weeks.

Ramsay needs to get the Baggies organised and playing with more attacking intent. Maybe a simple change back to a more familiar system could for at least now stop the rot before it is too late?