Albion are now equipped to ‘get ugly’ to make sure they stay in the Premier League this season.

That’s the view of captain Scott Carson after his team posted yet another performance to give the Hawthorns fans heart for the campaign ahead.

Carson is a survivor of the Tony Mowbray side that was labelled too naive and fragile for the top flight two seasons ago.

But taking their cue from that opening day hammering at Chelsea, Albion have hit back to register a point-per-game average from an early fixture list studded with games against the top flight’s most powerful forces.

After Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham, the goalkeeper admitted: “I think, in the past, we would have conceded the goal and thought ‘here we go again.’

“But it shows the spirit we’ve got. We play with a never-say-die attitude, we played against a very good side and managed to bounce back.  We take a lot of encouragement from that.

“We seemed to be too open last time. We’re doing the dirty stuff that we didn’t do last time – even seeing Jerome Thomas win a 50-50 slide tackle. It’s things like that we didn’t do last time.

“This time we’re better equipped and more compact. We’ve got more experience, we’ve got new players who have played more than 100 games at this level – that wasn’t the case two years ago.

“The more players like that you have the better it will be.”

Carson himself is producing the most convincing form of his Baggies career but, despite his England call a fortnight ago, remains focused solely on “playing consistently over the season.”

The three-cap international was watched by coach Ray Clemence again on Saturday and Carson is hopeful for the future.

He said: “I was delighted to get back in. I wasn’t expecting it.

“It’s a tighter squad than it has been. There was a time when you generally knew the team before you got there, but now the manager is looking at younger players and all the players and how they progress.

“I wasn’t aware Ray was at the game on Saturday. One game doesn’t make the difference – it’s about being consistent during the season.

“That’s all I want and that’s all the manager asks of me.”