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Crouch warns Liverpool to beware battling Baggies:Posted By: Janine Delacroix LIVERPOOL, England (AFP) - Peter Crouch has urged his Liverpool colleagues not to underestimate relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion as the Merseysiders aim to boost their challenge for the final automatic Champions League position at The Hawthorns on Saturday.A run of six games without a win has left Albion, managed by former England captain Bryan Robson, just three points above the relegation zone having played a game more than drop rivals Birmingham and Portsmouth. In-form Liverpool travel to the Midlands having scored 18 goals in their last four games, but nothing less than victory will do against Robson's team with Manchester United stretching their lead in second place to five points with a game in hand following their win over West Ham on Wednesday. However, with three points now vital for both teams, England striker Crouch admitted that Liverpool must be wary of Albion's desire to escape their own predicament if they are to emerge from The Hawthorns with another victory. "It will be difficult on Saturday against West Brom. I know from personal experience last season with Southampton that when a team is down at the bottom, they fight for every ball and every point they can get," Crouch said. "We will be prepared for a battle and if we play to the best of our ability we should win. We are scoring goals and playing well and hopefully that will continue. With Manchester United on a winning run, we need to win as many games as we can now in the league in order to finish as high as we can." West Brom secured Premiership survival last season with a final day victory over Portsmouth. The 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Monday increased the chances of Albion needing another last day escape this term, but striker Nathan Ellington is optimistic that the club can still guarantee survival for another year. "We know what's required of us. We have to pick ourselves up and we'll all be up for the Liverpool game as that's the spirit of us. People expected us to go to Spurs and get beaten easily, but instead we went and gave them a good game and should have got something out of it. "We showed passion, got forward, created some good chances and deserved to come away with something. We can take that display and go into Saturday's game with Liverpool still thinking we're capable of getting something," Ellington added. "I'm very confident that we can still get out of this." Liverpool recorded a 5-0 victory at The Hawthorns on their last visit in December 2004, but with captain Steven Gerrard suspended following his red card in the derby win against Everton last week, Crouch insisted Rafa Benitez's team could still perform without their inspirational skipper. "Obviously we are a much better team with Steven in it, but hopefully we proved to everyone against Everton last week that we can still battle and win games without him." Senegal striker Diomansy Kamary is rated at fifty-fity by West Brom to be fit in time for the game, but Hungarian midfielder Zoltan Gera is back in contention after returning from injury with a substitute appearance at Spurs. Courtesy Of: Yahoo! News The information reported above is property of Yahoo! inc. and reprinted or modified with legitimate permission. We thank Yahoo! inc. for the kind cooperation with us and other shareholders. |
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