Festive period is key to James Morrison

Midfielder James Morrison claims West Brom's Christmas fixtures will be crucial to their season after they threw away three points at Queens Park Rangers.

The Baggies lost 3-2 to a Charlie Austin hat-trick despite leading 2-0 after 20 minutes.

And Morrison believes the rest of the festive programme is now vital for their Premier League survival hopes.

Alan Irvine's men face champions Manchester City at the Hawthorns on Boxing Day before travelling to Stoke on December 28 and West Ham on New Year's Day.

Morrison said: "It's crucial to our season. In the past we've struggled at Christmas and we know what it can be like.

"We're going to need a fully-fit squad and everybody pulling in the same direction and hopefully we can pick up a win here and there and we'll be alright.

"We can see positives. We played some good football and created chances and we probably didn't take our chances well enough when we got into the final third.

"There was a sloppy pass here and there. But we will keep going and keep fighting."

Morrison was penalised for a first-half penalty from which QPR reduced the arrears to 2-1 and kick-started their comeback at Loftus Road.

The Scotland international was adjudged to have fouled Leroy Fer in the box as the midfielder sought to get on the end of a bouncing ball.

He said: "I haven't looked back at it. I had a hold of him but the lads think it was soft.

"But we should have dealt with the first ball so it shouldn't have happened.

"We had chances to win the game, we were comfortable and fair play to QPR, they kept going and put pressure on us and fair play to Charlie Austin.

"We went there and played our way and we had chances but we had to see the game out from being 2-0 up."

"You can't throw that lead away. We're bitterly disappointed that we didn't win the game.

"It would have given us a huge boost going into Christmas and now we've got a massive three games ahead of us and we need a win in there."

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