DALE STEPHENS believes Albion can stay up – with or without a new striker.

Work continues to secure a front man this month after the Seagulls missed out in the summer transfer window.

Midfielder Stephens, on target in Monday’s 2-1 FA Cup win over Crystal Palace, told The Argus: “I think our squad is strong enough, I’ve said that before. But it would be nice to get a boost if we get a fresh face in.

“I’m confident with the squad we’ve got at the moment that we can achieve what we want to achieve and stay in this division.”

Albion are 12th in the Premier League, three points above the relegation zone, after one win in 11 games.

They head to next-to-bottom West Brom on Saturday looking to add to a first away point in five games when last on their travels at Newcastle over Christmas.

Stephens said: “Performance wise we’ve not played too bad. I don’t think we are a million miles away from completing what we need to do. We just need to be probably more focused in the final third. That’s the difference in this league.

“But performances have been decent. We have probably been unlucky on a few occasions to not pick up more points. We are heading in the right direction.

“It will be tight from now until the end. We knew it would be like that. But we are not at the bottom, we are still mid-table. We have got a good opportunity at the weekend to stretch the margin and that’s what we have to do, look at every game individually and just build from there.”

Mathew Ryan, Bruno, Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy, Davy Propper, Anthony Knockaert, Pascal Gross and Glenn Murray are all likely to be restored to the starting line-up at the Hawthorns. Markus Suttner and Gaetan Bong, who has to manage a knee issue, will be vying for the left-back spot.