'Pressure's coming on top of you' - James Morrison reacts to latest West Brom dismissal

Ramsay was dismissed from The Hawthorns on Tuesday after a winless nine-match tenure lasting just 44 days.

He was the second head coach after Ryan Mason to be sacked in a miserable campaign and first-team coach Morrison has been placed into temporary charge for the third time in 12 months and second time this term.

Morrison worked under both Mason and Ramsay but neither boss was able to stem the tide as things instead unravelled further under the latter. The former midfield hero leads the flailing Baggies into a critical clash at second-bottom Oxford United on Saturday.

"It certainly has (been a) difficult time," Morrison said. "There's no question about that.

"It's a results business that we're in, so when we win the mood's upbeat and when we lose it's not there.

"It's been a whirlwind, but I've been here before, I know what job I've got to do and I'm going fully into it."

Morrison, 39, previously unbeaten from three matches as caretaker, admitted coming in to a tough situation and not making a flying start makes for a tough recovery.

Ramsay was beaten 5-0 by Norwich and 3-0 at Portsmouth in his first four games.

"Ultimately sometimes it's very difficult coming in at a time that he did," Morrison said. "There's not just inexperienced managers, obviously Eric managed in America in his first job.

"There's also been experienced managers who come in midway through the season and found it difficult.

"When you come in, you've got to try to get momentum quickly, get results or ultimately the pressure's going to come on top of you. The club are in a situation where they don't want to be, so they've made a decision.

"They (Mason and Ramsay) were quite similar. I thought they had some good ideas themselves. Again, I go back to having the results didn't go well, so it changes a bit.

"But I thank them for their efforts because they did put a lot of work in."

Morrison was first brought to first-team reckoning at The Hawthorns by Steve Bruce and returned to the role under Tony Mowbray.

The Darlington-born coach was quizzed on the dynamic between head coach and first-team coach and how much influence backroom staff have when it comes to decision-making 

"My role was to support Eric," he added. "Ultimately he makes the decisions and we've got to stick by that and support him in the best way we can.

"I felt that we did that, we had conversations, we expressed our opinions but ultimately the decisions go with the manager.

"It's a similar situation to me (now), I'm making the decisions and you live or you die by your decisions. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to think on the big ones, or you're nice and thorough, or you stick with it and you believe in what you believe."