Albion head for their latest away-day challenge with vice-captain Jonas Olsson insisting their injury-ravaged squad will rise to the task.

The Baggies will take on Bristol City tomorrow in the third of three successive away matches that have seen Roberto Di Matteo’s squad stretched to its limits due to injuries and suspensions.

But with Albion looking to extend their unbeaten away record to 13 matches in tomorrow’s televised clash, Olsson believes the squad have pulled together in the face of their recent adversity.

“If you look at our last game at Cardiff we had five or six big players injured and we still got a good draw against one of the better teams in the league,” said the Swede.

“That was probably the most difficult away game so far and we still should maybe of had three points, so that shows we have a good selection of players.

“That is something that is in our favour for the remainder of the campaign.

“In training yesterday we saw Giles Barnes training and James Morrison too, so if we can get them playing they will be a real bonus and we will have a really competitive squad.

“We will need that with the end of February and the whole of March and a lot of games coming up.

“There are a lot of games and I have looked at the schedule for next month and there seem to be a lot of games there too.

“But we’re in good shape and we’re playing well and it’s just nice to play more games.

“It feels like we have had our share of injuries. Ishmael Miller was coming back and got another setback, and Gonzalo Jara being out for the rest of the season is another setback.

“But we’re still up there and if we can get them back it will only strengthen us.”

Olsson will make his first visit to Ashton Gate looking to prove a personal point after a merciless self-critique of his display at Cardiff on Tuesday.

The former NEC Nijmegen man gave away the early penalty that left the Baggies playing catch-up against the Bluebirds.

And although they fought back to claim a valuable draw in the Welsh capital, Olsson departed cursing his own performance and determined to do better in front of the BBC One viewers tomorrow.

“As a team going to Cardiff and picking up a point, it’s a good result,” he said.

“As the game developed maybe we deserved three and as a team performance we were happy but I was disappointed because the penalty at the beginning cost us two points.

“As a defender or goalkeeper if you make a mistake it’s normally crucial but that’s part of the game and it happens so you need to move on.

“I have conceded two penalties this year and if the one against Ipswich was a bit soft this was definitely a penalty.

“But playing 40 or 50 games a season, you are going to have one or two of these and it was too bad it came in the game at Cardiff.”

Albion take their proud away record to face a Bristol City side who have drawn their last two home games 1-1 having lost the previous one 6-0 to Cardiff.

The run has seen them slide down the Championship table and the loss to injury of leading scorer Nicky Maynard has also hampered boss Gary Johnson.

But Baggies head coach Roberto Di Matteo has warned his side to expect a backlash at Ashton Gate tomorrow, especially with on-loan Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo now settling in as he prepares for his third appearance.

“They are like an injured animal because they are on a bit of a bad run and they want to finish it,” said Di Matteo.

“So I think they will be very dangerous.

“It’s a tricky game. It’s tricky enough in normal times when you go to Bristol but on top of that now they’ve got Iwelumo, who is a threat, and has got experience.

“When you’re going through a rough patch you can’t wait to finish it and you pull all your resources together to do that as soon as possible.”

Marek Cech, Ishmael Miller and Jerome Thomas will remain sidelined tomorrow along with longer-term absentees Giles Barnes and James Morrison.

But Di Matteo is likely to recall Youssouf Mulumbu after suspension into the centre of midfield, which could allow Chris Brunt to revert to his preferred wide role after shifting inside at Cardiff.

And the head coach, who also hopes to welcome back Roman Bednar and Abdoulaye Meite to his squad, does not foresee any repeat of Mulumbu’s red card for two bookable offences at Reading in the FA Cup.

The Italian said: “It’s great that we have at least one player back and hopefully Roman and Abou will be back.

“People saw the bench on Tuesday night so I will be grateful if I get one or two senior players back.

“Youssouf has always been important to us and he has been very good as well.

“Even when he had the little spell when Gonzalo Jara was playing it was only a matter of time before he was back in the team.

“To be honest I thought the red card was quite harsh.

“He got a yellow card for the first tackle, that wasn’t malicious. It was a foul but fouls like that happen 100 times in a game.

“The second was for a little pull-back and if he used a little bit of common sense he would have seen the player had been booked.

“They don’t book every player that pulls another player back.

“If they do it consistently, fair enough, but they don’t do that.

“I thought it was very harsh and I thought it was a one-off.”