West Bromwich Albion FC

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• Founded:1878
• Manager:Roy Hodgson

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Mowbray predicts survival

17 Aug 2008 - 11:10:23

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Manager Tony Mowbray believes West Bromwich Albion have shown they can compete in the Premier League after producing a spirited display in Saturday's opening 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.

The Baggies restricted a side expected to challenge for the title to limited goalscoring opportunities in their first match back in the top-flight and afterwards Mowbray was heartened by the performance.

"We didn't get off to a great start with them scoring early in the game, but they are a great side," he conceded.

"But once we got a grip of the game we gave a decent account of ourselves, although they had about 20 opportunities and we probably only created one or two ourselves.

"Arsenal were flowing and we had a few problems down the right side and they capitalised on that, but once we sorted out the problems we performed a lot better.

"There are a lot of positives to take from the game. We don't go away hammered and go away believing we can compete in this league, but there is plenty to work to do.

"I think we will be okay as long as we work as hard as we did today."