Slaven Bilic sees the FA Cup clash against Newcastle as a good test of West Brom’s Premier League credentials.
The Albion boss does not expect there to be much between the two teams when they meet at The Hawthorns on Tuesday night, with his side top of the Championship table and the Magpies 14th in the Premier League.
West Brom have already overcome top-flight opposition in this season’s competition, having knocked out Bilic’s former club West Ham in the previous round.
Ahead of the fifth-round tie, Bilic said at his pre-match press conference: “It will be very interesting to see how big the gap is, if anything, in quality.
“The league positions are a little bit closer mentally – we are at the top of the Championship and we have to compete with a team that’s in the bottom half of the table in the Premier League.
“They are where we want to be, they are one level higher than us. At the same time, they are a team of strengths and weaknesses. They are not a perfect team. They are sitting pretty much okay-ish in the table
“They are a very solid team. They are not scoring and you can say, it’s obvious, they haven’t scored in their last four games, but they are very hard to beat and they have made some tremendous results, especially away at big clubs.
“If you add to that after many years they have also a good cup run this time, it shows that this season is pretty much good. Steve Bruce deserves big credit for that.
“We are in a good mood, we are positive, we are winning most of the games, so it also makes you a better team and better players.
“Newcastle are dangerous and it’s going to be a good test for us. It will be interesting to see. But we are in the Championship and as long as we are in the Championship we must concentrate on that.
“We can progress into the last eight and that would be tremendous. It would help us if that happens. It would boost our confidence in the final Championship games.”
Ahmed Hegazi is a fresh injury absentee for West Brom ahead of the tie. The central defender limped off during the Championship defeat to Wigan on Saturday and he joins Grady Diangana (hamstring) and Nathan Ferguson (knee) on the sidelines.
Callum Robinson and Kamil Grosicki are both cup-tied, having already played in the competition for Sheffield United and Hull respectively.
Romaine Sawyers, meanwhile, will serve the final game of his three-match suspension, after being shown a red card in the 3-0 win over Bristol City.
