Captain Curtis Davies today primed Albion for “nine must-win matches” in the wake of his side’s Black Country derby setback.

The Baggies skipper responded to yesterday’s 1-0 defeat at Molineux by setting his sights on back-to-back home wins in the race for an automatic promotion spot.

The Baggies promotion rivals get the chance to tighten the pressure with games tomorrow night before Albion tackle Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

Then comes another huge derby – this time against leaders Birmingham City – to be played out over next Sunday lunchtime.

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Captain Curtis Davies today primed Albion for “nine must-win matches” in the wake of his side’s Black Country derby setback.

The Baggies skipper responded to yesterday’s 1-0 defeat at Molineux by setting his sights on back-to-back home wins in the race for an automatic promotion spot.

The Baggies promotion rivals get the chance to tighten the pressure with games tomorrow night before Albion tackle Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

Then comes another huge derby – this time against leaders Birmingham City – to be played out over next Sunday lunchtime.

Davies admitted Tony Mowbray’s side face an uphill struggle to return to the top two after yesterday’’s result left them fifth, six points behind second-placed Derby with nine matches to go.

“It’s going to be hard, looking at the points difference,” conceded Davies. “We’re going to have to win three more games than Derby and we also need Sunderland and Wolves to drop a few points along the way.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve going from being top at Christmas to being where we are now, but we are strong and it’s up to us to prove that now by bouncing straight back.

“The last nine games are all must-win games. Every game is massive from now until the end of the season.

“We need to be winning these games to put pressure on the teams at the top.”

Davies admitted the Baggies now need to go for broke as they seek a return to the top two after they fell further off the promotion pace thanks to Jay Bothroyd’s winner for Wolves.

But the captain insisted his team will pass the test of character by putting yesterday’s late defeat at Molineux behind them and bouncing back in the remaining fixtures.

“It’s not like we’re top and holding on to a lead, because maybe you could afford a few draws then,” said Davies.

“We’re chasing and we need to be winning matches to keep up the pressure on the teams above us. It’s not that easy because the table is still tight, but we need wins.

“It’s a big test of character now but we’ve got big characters in the dressing room, and we’ve got good footballers.

“We can’t take anything for granted, though. We need to get out there and earn it.

“Personally I’m not disappointed because we lost a derby, I’m just disappointed that we lost to one of our rivals for promotion”

Albion face a Palace side who manager Peter Taylor insists still have a chance of gate-crashing the play-offs with Nathan Ellington completing his three-match suspension. Dio Kamara’s booking for diving yesterday took the team’s top scorer to nine for the season and the brink of another suspension the team can ill afford.

But Mowbray was a picture of defiance at the end of his team’s disappointing third collision with Wolves. 

“I’m not hurting – we’ll wait until the end of the season and see who is hurting then,” said Mowbray.

“But I know that if the team continue to play like that between now and the end of the season we will win plenty of games.”