Conor Townsend fires West Brom warning to Championship rivals | OneFootball

West Bromwich Albion full-back Conor Townsend believes there’s still a lot more to come from the Baggies during the remainder of the 2021/22 campaign, speaking to the Express and Star after their 3-0 victory over Bristol City at the weekend.

This comfortable win at The Hawthorns keeps them in the automatic promotion mix after dropping out of the top two when they lost 2-1 to Swansea City in South Wales in the previous fixture, leaving Valerien Ismael’s side regretting the Swans’ comeback after initially taking the lead in the first minute last Wednesday night.

They delivered an emphatic response to that setback against Nigel Pearson’s men though, with Jordan Hugill, Kyle Bartley and Karlan Grant securing the points and keeping them within one point of the top two.

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Although they are currently six points behind league leaders AFC Bournemouth as things stand, with the Cherries going unbeaten in all 14 of their second-tier games so far this season, second-placed side Fulham have slipped up enough times already against the likes of Reading and Coventry City to give the West Midlands side real hope of reclaiming an automatic promotion spot.

Ismael’s side may have faced criticism for their style of play throughout the 2021/22 campaign and been punished for recent losses against Stoke City and Swansea, but they have gone unbeaten in 12 of their 14 matches and look a real threat going forward at times.

But Albion wing-back Townsend believes there’s still more to come from the Baggies in the coming weeks and months, saying to the Express and Star: “So far I think we, as a team, have been good there’s still a lot more to come from us.

“There’s been games where we’ve not performed quite to our full abilities so hopefully we can go on now and put another run of wins together.

“It’s always one game at a time and we want to try and consistently put in good performances and get results.

“I still don’t think we’ve hit top form yet and shown our full capabilities, so that’s exciting.

“It’s exciting to know there’s another level to come from us.”

West Brom may need to find that extra gear if they want to go up automatically, because Bournemouth’s unbeaten run and Fulham’s first-team quality may prove to be the difference between the duo and the Baggies at the end of the season.

The West Midlands side are capable of catching the duo with their clearly defined system and threat in front of goal, but a main goalscorer and more depth in a couple of areas may be needed if automatic promotion is to become more of a probability than a possibility.

Daryl Dike would be an ideal signing on a loan deal until the end of the season, but officials at The Hawthorns were reluctant to spend in the summer, even with the sale of Matheus Pereira, so that could continue into the winter period.

They are likely to seal their place in the top six regardless of whether they go up automatically or not, but the play-offs will be a lottery and it would be interesting to see how the Baggies would size up to a much-improved Sheffield United side in a potential play-off clash.

Manager Ismael knows all about play-off heartbreak from his rise at Barnsley last term – and he will be keen to avoid going through that again.