Albion blogger Jarrod Hill mulls over a tough trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham as the Baggies return to Premier League action.

It may only have been two weeks, but it feels like a life time since our disappointing result against Newcastle and I can’t wait to see our sun kissed boys back in action.

It’s time to face facts – as we approach the end of February this is the business end of the season and if we are to survive we need to get results at places like Craven Cottage.

Fulham are having a good season and having established themselves in the top flight under a manager I rate highly in Roy Hodgson. On the other hand, we will be viewed as cannon fodder due to our recent defensive frailties.

Interestingly I have taken a look at our defensive statistics to see if it threw up any correlations.

We have kept five Premier League clean sheets. Jonas Olsson has been a part of three, Leon Barnett three, Ryan Donk three and Abdoulaye Meite making up the numbers with one appearance.

Personally I view Olsson and Donk as our first choice central partnership.

Olsson has been my man of the season so far, closely followed by James Morrison, and I see his return as being a key element to our chances of survival. Donk has made some simple errors but still seems less error prone than Meite and Barnett.

But this is has been our biggest problem so far this season, not being able to choose our first choice eleven. I feel sorry for manager Tony Mowbray and it must be so frustrating, but we now see the difference between having a good team and having a good squad.

Fulham have been strong defensively this season and I see Sunday’s game as being a tight affair, yet if Jay Simpson is fit to partner the impressive Marc Antoine Fortune up front we now have an attacking front two who have a number of weapons in their locker.

Fortune’s ability to hold the ball up and Simpson’s directness will cause problems for whoever we play – and with Roman Bednar as the work horse on the bench we have options to mix things up.

I think the first goal will prove to be very important and I hope we come out of the traps firing on all cylinders. We will also have either the hindrance or benefit of knowing how a number of our closest rivals have faired the day before.

I have never been quite sure whether it has a good, bad or indifferent effect on a team’s performance.

It will be interesting to see what part our new signings will play in the next few weeks and I am hoping we see little of a favourite old boy, Zoltan Gera.

I was disappointed to see him go and have been surprised by how little he has played for Fulham this season. In fact few former Albion favourites in recent years have had much success since feeling the need to move on to greener pastures.

Anyway onto the game, we have heard little regarding who will be fit and who will miss out for Sunday’s game, so I have decided to pick my first choice 11 if everyone were fit and well. It kind of highlights the terrible injuries we have had to endure this season – as this team has never been the starting eleven.

Albion: Carson, Zuiverloon, Olsson, Donk, Robinson, Morrison, Koren, Greening, Cech, Simpson and Fortune.

Subs: Kiely, Bednar, Moore, Valero, Meite, Brunt and Dorrans.

I have not included our two new signings, as I will hold judgement until I have seen them play.

I honestly believe that if we could play this team week in week out we would not even be talking about relegation, but I am sure many other teams are in the same position.

I hope for a win, I would accept a draw, but a loss would represent a huge dent in our campaign. Lets be positive and say a win, a clean sheet, and no new injuries.

Oh stuff it while I am being so unrealistic, lets throw in six numbers on the lottery as well!