West Brom on verge of unwanted club record

The Baggies have gone 15 games in all competitions without tasting victory, equalling the record set in the 1995/96 season under Alan Buckley.

That run was far worse, because the Baggies lost 14 of their 15 games then, including a monstrous 12 in a row that culminated in an FA Cup defeat to lower-league Crewe Alexandra.

The only game they didn’t lose was a goalless draw with rivals Wolves at The Hawthorns.

This crop have at least drawn seven of their last 15 matches, helping them keep their heads just above water, but they will break the unwanted record on Wednesday if they fail to beat Liverpool at Anfield.

However, the Baggies can take heart from that team of 22 years ago.

Having fallen from second place to bottom of Division One on their incredible losing run, Buckley’s men started to win games in February and slowly but surely dragged themselves clear of danger.

It was thanks in large part to new signing Richard Sneekes, who became an instant cult hero after scoring 10 goals in 13 appearances following his arrival in March from Bolton Wanderers.

By the end of one of Albion’s most chaotic seasons in their history, they had even managed to finish in the top half.

Daryl Burgess played 45 league games in defence that season. He witnessed the highs and the lows.

“When we had our run, there were games we thoroughly deserved to get beat,” he said. “But there were also games we played very well but one thing went against you.

“I remember we played Sunderland at The Hawthorns and got beat 1-0 and they had one chance all game and we just couldn’t score.

"It’s very difficult, you look at all aspects of it, we couldn’t keep a clean sheet at that time.

“It does affect the confidence of the whole team and you can feel the frustration of the supporters.

“That helps opposing teams, especially when we’re at home, they think if we keep them quiet for 15 minutes and nick a goal the natives will get restless.

"So you have to stick together, you have to trust each other, keep doing the right things. You have to try and be mentally strong.

“We got out of that consecutive defeat with a game against Wolves at home. We missed a penalty to win it, but got a 0-0 draw.

“We lost a game after that but after that we went on a major run and lost two in 19.

“You’re just looking for that slice of luck to go for you.

“What seems to happen when you’re on these runs you can play really well but you never get one off somebody’s knee, it has to be a worldie goal.

“And once you’ve won, you do then need to make that one win into two or three wins and start to build.”

The current team’s 14-game run in the league without a win puts is in the top joint-20 longest in the Premier League.

However, if they fail to beat Liverpool, Manchester United and Stoke they will enter the top five.

It is not even Albion's longest run without a win in the Premier League. They went 15 games without a win in 2004/05, but only 14 in all competitions because they beat Preston North End in the FA Cup third round.

But they still have some way to go to match the worst runs in the Premier League.

Derby County top that list with a 32-game streak during their disastrous 2007/08 campaign that saw them relegated with a meagre 11 points and one win all season.

Sunderland went 20 league games without a win in 2002/03, while Aston Villa (2015/16) and Nottingham Forest (1998/99) have both gone 19 games – half a season – without victory.

Albion need to win one of their five remaining games in December in order to avoid that particular embarrassment, but with Liverpool, United, Stoke, Everton and Arsenal coming up, it will be difficult.

“The difference is, every game is a big game now in the Premier league, they’re all sell outs,” said Burgess.

“I hope we’re going to get a bounce off a new manager but we need to give him time to implement the ideas he has.

“What’s surprised me was the amount of clean sheets we have kept since Christmas. For a Tony Pulis team it was very low. With Tony in charge, there were a lot of 1-0 wins.

“But when Tony Pulis isn’t keeping clean sheets, you’re not going to win 3-2.

“I’m surprised (by this run) because of the quality of the team we’ve got, but the set-up and the way we were playing, Tony was going to find it difficult to score two or three goals every game.

“I went down to the Crystal Palace game, you can definitely see we looked a bit more offensive (under Alan Pardew).

“The main thing is to get a win because the longer this goes on, we’ll get stuck in that relegation zone and then we’ll need two or three to get out.

“I’m sure Alan will get a bounce off the players, we’ve got some tough games on the horizon, so it’s not going to be easy.

“He played every attacking player he has at Swansea so I’m sure he’ll be looking to strengthen in January.”

Based on what's happened before, perhaps Pardew should put a long-haired midfielder on top of his list of potential targets.