Mowbray's roller-coaster ride

But the Baggies boss, under pressure to deliver an instant promotion back to the big time, insists:"I've got my finger on the pulse of the club."

Mowbray has seen his side deliver extremes of form since his arrival in November as Bryan Robson's successor.

He has watched a squad regularly described as the best in the Championship produce some spectacular goalscoring - and also suffer some alarming dips in form and results.

It has left Albion acknowleding that they have come up short in their quest for automatic promotion and that is viewed within the club as a failure. But reaching the Premiership is still within their grasp and Mowbray knows that all will be forgiven if he can bring home football's holy grail - and the £40m-plus treasure chest which comes with it.

"It has been a rollercoaster," said Mowbray. "You get to know your team as you go along. You inherit what you inherit, and assess your best squad, your best team, your best players and whether you should be doing this or should be doing that.

"I'd like to think that I know where this team is and why we get performances like we do and how we can be so good or so bad - you get to know your team and players.

"In a footballing context I think I have my finger on the pulse at this football club. I know what needs to be done to take us where we want to go. We can get there with what we're working with and if we get there we know we have to rebuild as well to make us stronger."

Mowbray made his name assembling and shaping a squad at Hibernian which made remarkable progress and drew critical acclaim from supporters and the Scottish media even if an outright challenge to the Old Firm was always beyond their reach.

But his critics still question whether that was a sufficient entry on his CV to be given the task of guiding this Albion team to promotion in his first English posting.

"Yes I am learning and this job has been a hugely different experience to the one I had in Scotland," added Mowbray. "People talk to me about pressure but I'd rather be doing this than being sat in mid-table.

"I'm fully aware of what players we need to try to attract to the football club to make it easier for the existing staff to be more confident going into the games that we will get results as opposed to being unsure of what's going to happen. You have targets you want to get - sometimes you can't always get those. But I know the players this club needs and let's hope we're recruiting players for the Premier League."