Hell for Mel but boss backs Albion survival bid

Shell-shocked Pepe Mel today backed Albion to bounce back and secure Premier League survival despite their latest heartbreaking giveaway on Saturday.

The Baggies squandered a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with Tottenham and pass up the chance to move within a whisker of clinching survival.

But Mel insists his players will recover from their latest setback despite admitting several were exhausted at the final whistle.

"The players keep raising themselves," he said. "Three, four or five players are very, very tired. Claudio Yacob, for example, and Chris Brunt had very good games because they had several games out and were like new players.

"The biggest job now that the technical team has is to lift the players. They have done well. They deserve to have more points."

The Baggies now face a daunting Easter Monday trip to Manchester City before taking on West Ham, Arsenal, Sunderland and Stoke in their last four matches. And Mel insisted his side have the fixtures in their favour.

"Firstly we don't consider we will lose to Manchester City," he said.

"If we keep doing things in the way we have then things will go for us. We've won two and drawn two of the last five games."

Mel received criticism from fans for withdrawing record signing Stephane Sessegnon early in the second half in favour of defensive midfielder Claudio Yacob, but he insisted he did not order his side to sit back.

"We really did need him (Sessegnon) to play well but when we realised he was getting tired, we brought him off," said Mel.

"Tottenham tried to win the game and we tried to maintain our advantage and perhaps we did this in the wrong way.

"But we just told them to keep doing the same things, but the problem is we also had a rival trying to stop us playing.

"We were better in the first half and Tottenham were better in the second.

"We were all happy with the first 45 minutes and we were better than Tottenham and we have to keep on improving.

"What we need to do is take the positives. We had an exceptional start and a really good first half.

"We scored three goals and gained a point, what we need to do now is look forward to the future.

"We have to look towards the future and at the end of the season, which is what really matters.

"The situation changes week on week. We've got five more games left and 15 points to play for."