Roberto Di Matteo today ordered Albion to blank out their promotion rivals as they look to match Newcastle and Nottingham Forest tonight.

Leaders Newcastle and third-placed Forest maintained the pressure on the Baggies with wins last night.

And this evening it is over to Di Matteo and Co as they entertain Coventry looking to close the gap to the Magpies and regain their eight-point lead over the chasing pack.

But the Hawthorns head coach has again insisted his side will focus purely on their own jobs as they look to complete their return to the Premier League.

“It’s not about them,” said Di Matteo. “It’s about what we do.

“If we can win games that moves us in the table and it doesn’t really matter what the opposition do.

“We’re going to focus on our performance and hopefully be positive.”

Victory tonight would leave the Baggies eight points clear of Forest with just seven matches remaining for both clubs.

And, as the promotion race reaches crunch-time, Di Matteo has insisted pressure is nothing new to his players.

The head coach said: “We’ve been under pressure all season to be honest.

“We’ve had to deal with that pressure.

“In the last stage of the season when it’s heating up it is kind of nothing new to us because we’ve always been under that pressure.

“I think our players are mentally quite strong.

“But you do feel during the games sometimes a little bit of nervousness comes to the surface.

“Generally, it’s a young squad.

“Our target is just the next game. We’re looking only at tonight.

“It’s another home game for us and we know the importance of our home games.

“We’re trying to get the maximum out of our home games, which leaves us to pick up less points away from home – even though we’ve got a good away record.

“We want to do well at home.”

Di Matteo is braced, however, for another tough test of his team’s credentials this evening as an improving Coventry side arrive at The Hawthorns looking to boost their own hopes of a play-off place.

And, having watched the Sky Blues several times of late, Di Matteo is under no illusions about their threat.

“I think they’ve had a very good 2010,” he said. “I’ve watched them a number of times.

“They were struggling a little bit towards the end of last year.

“Then they put a nice run together in the New Year and it shows in where they are in the table.

“I saw them on Sunday (against Leicester) as well and I was impressed by their second-half performance.

“They were 2-0 down at half time and came out very strongly after the break and put Leicester under pressure.

“We know what to expect and they still have chance of the play-offs as well.”

The Italian faces two tricky selection decisions this evening with Steven Reid available again and competing for the right-back berth with Gianni Zuiverloon, who made a steady return against Preston on Saturday.

The head coach must also choose between Ishmael Miller and Luke Moore in attack with the decision likely to hinge on Miller’s fitness to start twice in five days.

Joe Mattock is likely to come in from the cold to replace the injured Marek Cech at left-back.

Di Matteo’s men could come face to face with a familiar figure this evening in the shape of Leon Barnett, who is eligible to face them for the Sky Blues.

His season-long loan at the Ricoh Arena does not include a clause blocking him from playing against his parent club, although he is only likely to be a substitute.

Coventry boss Chris Coleman is expected to field a five-man midfield, which could mean Clinton Morrison switching from a centre-forward role to play wide on the right.

Aron Gunnarsson and Michael McIndoe are both major injury doubts.

Albion are looking for their fifth straight win since losing at QPR and striker Miller believes they have dipped their push for the finish line perfectly.

“We’re in a great position and, to be fair, we could have kicked on earlier this season,” said the powerhouse forward.

“But we’ve done it at the crucial time when we needed to do it.

“Now we’re running out of games and we’re still in a great position, eight points clear with eight games left and four at home. It’s in our hands now and there for us to lose.

“We put QPR behind us straight away and we’ve gone on to get four wins back to back.

“It’s difficult this time of the season for any team. We’ve just got it right, at the right time. These last four games have been crucial and we hit form at the right time.

“You’ve just got to have the right mindset and all the players have been focusing each other.

“We’re in a happy, excited mood and that’s sometimes good because it takes the pressure off you and you can go into games relaxed.

“I think it showed in the first 20 minutes of the Preston game that we could ease the pressure, whereas maybe that wasn’t so for the first 20 minutes of Sheffield Wednesday at home.

“Hopefully that can go into our favour and we can go into games with a lot less pressure than the other teams.

“Coventry are a good team. Every team I have played against them they have been a strong team and you know you’re going to be in a battle when you play against Coventry.

“But hopefully we will be able to get more points and hopefully it will be three so we can keep the pressure on the other teams.”