West Brom building momentum on a knife-edge, admits Alan Pardew
Albion are building up a head of steam, according to boss Alan Pardew, but they're not fooling themselves that survival is guaranteed.
The Baggies drew 1-1 with Everton on Saturday after Jay Rodriguez's third goal in five games was cancelled out by Oumar Niasse's first touch from the bench.
It means Pardew's men are unbeaten in three, and have lost just one of the last six games in all competitions.
The head coach has now settled on his favoured starting XI, and it is starting to reap dividends.
But the Baggies remain three points adrift from safety and after watching Everton midfielder James McCarthy suffer a nasty double leg break, Pardew is worried that more injuries to his side will doom them.
"The problem we’ve got is that we’re on a knife-edge situation," said Pardew. "Lose a couple of players and we’re going to be in trouble.
"I don’t think we’re counting our chickens that we’re good enough.
"If you lose two or three players when you’re six or seven points clear of the relegation zone you might be okay.
"But we can’t and that’s where we are at the moment.
"We’re on the edge, but we’re playing well and there’s a good confidence in the camp. Certainly there's more of an offensive feel to us."
Pardew wants to bolster his attacking options this month with Nacer Chadli and James Morrison currrently sidelined.
But Salomon Rondon was man of the match at Goodison Park and Rodriguez has started finding the net with regularity in recent weeks.
"I'm seeing enough at the top of the pitch to be encouraged," said Pardew. "Rondon was terrific in everything he did.
"Jay's got great pedigree. I think he's finding his feet, it's about confidence for strikers.
"I thought you saw in our two strikers, their confidence returning. They were a handful for Everton.
"I think you're seeing a team functioning ok. We've proved that for a while now, six or seven games.
"We were very unlucky at West Ham, one or two of these games we could have had three points.
"It would have been fair on us if we had won but it's ok, we keep our momentum.
"We just need to keep winning our home games and pick up points away from home."
