Yahoo Sports Mowbray 'hungry as ever' to taste Albion success
There is a real hunger about new West Bromwich Albion head coach Tony Mowbray - and not because he has run out of packets of Revels.
He is, after all, still working his way through 200 family packs of them kindly sent to him by the Sunderland Supporters Club as a 'Get Well Soon' present when he was recovering from his brush over the last year with bowel cancer.
His love of chocolate has even made him a social media sensation.
But while at 61 years of age Mowbray may have had to change his eating habits, it has not altered his appetite for getting the Baggies back in the Championship promotion race.
Mowbray's first game in charge is back at his beloved boyhood club Middlesbrough.
He takes over an Albion side who led the table in mid-September, lost their way in a deluge of autumn draws, but who are still in the play-off mix in sixth.
The Baggies are 15 points behind leaders Leeds United, 12 off third-placed Burnley and within sight of two more of his former clubs - Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers.
"It's been a tough year for the family as well as me," he told BBC Radio WM. "You see what an impact it's had on them. But I'm full of energy again and I hope the supporters can hear the enthusiasm in my voice.
"It's humbling the reception I've had. I really don't feel I deserve some of the things I've seen and heard and read - but I'm back at work now and my only aim is to get this club firing again. And this has all possibly made me even more hungry than I ever was. I can feel it bouncing out of me.
"The teams in front of us might be 12 or more points ahead and we know what the reality might be, but let's see if we can't put some pressure on them. Let's see if can run them down."
Mowbray admits he would prefer not to have had his first game back at Boro, close to where he still lives on Teesside.
"Everybody I know is a Boro fan," he said. "I supported them all my life and played there until I was 28.
"My first-ever game at Ayresome Park in the early 1970s was my dad dragging me out of school for one of the midweek afternoon games during the power cuts and the three-day week to watch George Best play for Man Utd.
"And as a former Boro captain, I can go to any game there and they look after me. The point is that I've seen them play a lot this year and, whether I've seen something there that we turn into an advantage, we'll have to say. But what I do know is that Michael Carrick has them very well coached."
"I don't want to disrupt too much. I won't be doing a Brian Clough like he did at Leeds, telling the players to put their medals in the bin.
"There's been some amazing work done at this club, out of possession, the structure. They all work really hard. I've watched their goals and there have been some wonderful goals. But I want the players to keep enjoying it. There isn't much wrong, just a tummy to tickle here and there.
"I went into the dressing room at half-time on Saturday because we needed more bodies in the box. I felt the goal was coming and it did. There are really good, attacking footballers at this club.
"Grady Diangana is wonderful, but he's been inconsistent. Mikey Johnston, Tom Fellows, wonderful players in my eyes. Karlan Grant and Josh Maja when he's fit. He links the play. I'm here to tinker, not to disrupt too much and hopefully improve."
The new Baggies backroom team
Mowbray's backroom team will be led by long-time number two Mark Venus, who also returns to The Hawthorns as assistant head coach.
But caretaker boss Chris Brunt, who led the three-man interim Albion management team between Carlos Corberan's exit late on Christmas Eve and Mowbray's appointment on Friday, will not be part of it.
The former Albion skipper instead returns to his day job as lead tactical scout, head of loans and pathways & PDP talent.
Another long-time Albion servant James Morrison – like Brunt, also signed in 2007 by Mowbray - is the new first-team coach.
And two of Corberan's backroom team remain in place, goalkeeper coach Boaz Myhill and first-team statistical analyst Damia Abella.
"David Moyes going back to Everton created a big debate about whether you should ever go back," Mowbray added.
"But it's a different club now from when I was here before under Jeremy Peace. Apart from Brunty and Morrison there's not too many staff left in the building.
"The one common denominator is the supporters, who are still there, as they were 16 years ago, 18 years ago and before that. They still have their passion and I hope they can sense I still have mine."
Tony Mowbray was talking to BBC Radio WM's Steve Hermon.
