Brandon Thomas-Asante insists West Brom solely focussed on own position

Albion currently sit five points off the top six - and now face an extended two week break from action due to this weekend's opponents, Sheffield United, progressing in the FA Cup.

That means by the time Albion face play-off rivals Millwall on April 1 - they could be eight points off the pace.

But the striker, who returned to action in the 1-1 draw against Cardiff on Wednesday evening - believes Albion cannot afford to look at anything else other than their own position.

He said: "We just focus on ourselves and we know we’re all going to end up on 46 games by May.

“Teams around us will play, we’re going to have days when we play and they’re not and vice-versa until the end of the season.

“But what we know is, when we’re on the pitch, we want to take as much as we can from every game which is why we’re so frustrated to only have a point.

“But with that mentality, I think it’ll get us to where we need to be. Just being focused on ourselves, because if you’re focused on the rest of the table, it can distract us from what we’re doing.

“We know where we want to be and we’ll do what we can to get there.”

In recent games, Albion have struggled to break teams down at times, with the draw in Wales coming after two narrow 1-0 wins over relegation threatened Huddersfield and Wigan.

Thomas-Asante believes the way teams are setting up against Albion is the reason behind finding it hard to break them down.

He added: "Teams do respect us a lot as a group and they often set up quite defensively. That makes it hard to break teams down at times and that does call on us attackers to think of things and be creative.

“We have the players to do that and we have higher expectations of ourselves than what we showed, but we’re working on it and we’ll look to build on it in the next game."

The striker, who joined the club from Salford City in the summer has just returned from a three game absence with a hamstring injury.

He was introduced as a second half substitute and impressed off the bench, before carving out an opportunity for Jed Wallace late on.

The striker is delighted to have made his return - but wishes Albion were back in action this weekend as he looks to kick on again following a successful first campaign in the Championship.

He said: “It’s felt awful being away recently, but I’m super happy to be back.

“As you know we’re a tight-knit group and even though I was away, it was still good to be in and around the boys and now I can contribute something once again by playing.

"I’ll take this in my stride and into the break over the next couple of weeks and we’ll go again.

“I felt really good out there and now I’m back on the pitch, it’s just about getting back in the swing.

“I wish there was a game in a few days, but I’ll use this break to get a bit more strength, speed and sharpness into me and use it as an opportunity to not only get back to the level I was at, but get past that and keep pushing.”