Greening confident West Bromwich can repeat great escape

(GETTY IMAGES)

Jonathan Greening insists that the current West Bromwich Albion side have more quality than the one which avoided relegation in dramatic fashion three years ago.

Greening was a key member of the 2004-05 team under Bryan Robson which became the first in Premier League history to avoid relegation after being bottom of the table at Christmas.

Albion are propping up the table after a disastrous sequence of results which has yielded one point out of a possible 24 and seen them drop from ninth to 20th position, but Greening is adamant the class of 2008 can also escape and reiterated his faith in the current manager Tony Mowbray.

Greening, in his fifth season with West Bromwich, said yesterday: "We were the first team to be bottom of the Premier League at Christmas and stay up, so we know it can be done. We have got the players to do that and we are playing better football this time than we did then – so why can't we do it?

"We need a little bit of luck, things to go our way which, hopefully, will start to happen soon. But you just have to keep your chin up and go again."

Albion's season was summed up on Saturday when they were beaten 2-1 at Wigan after having the chances to kill off the game when in front. Greening said: "We all believe in the gaffer [Mowbray] and we all believe in each other and we need to stay strong as a team. Of course, it is deflating when you play well, have so many chances, and end up not getting anything out of the game. We need to get the right results by cutting out the sloppy mistakes."

The Real Mallorca striker Oscar Trejo wants to hold talks with West Bromwich over a possible January move. The Argentine was among Mowbray's summer transfer targets but any hopes of a deal ended when Mallorca put a £4m-plus fee on the 20-year-old.

Mowbray is aware of the need to bring in more firepower: Albion have scored just 12 goals in the opening 16 league games of the season. Trejo's agent Martan Paledes said: "There is a possibility to move Trejo but we need to think carefully about it and find out exactly what West Brom want to do.

"We are waiting for a meeting with West Brom and we will see what they want. Mallorca want the player and West Brom want him, so we will have to try to help both and help the player."

Jonathan Greening says West Bromwich must 'keep their chins up' despite current woes