Bilic: It ain’t so easy at top

to us not picking up points was, ‘Oh, it’s really bad’.

“But if you look at the teams around us that were in the top seven before the restart... OK, Brentford, maximum points... Forest seven points... but after that we are in big trouble.

“But we have got the same points as Leeds. Fulham have fewer points, not to mention Preston and Bristol City.

“It’s not like everyone else is flying and we are in a real crisis.

“I’m glad that the group here reacted very quickly at Sheffield Wednesday. I said, ‘Listen, guys, this isn’t good enough. We have got to do it.’

The Baggies have struggled against the Championship’s lower lights at The Hawthorns.

So far this season they have lost to Wigan, Stoke and Middlesbrough, who are all near the foot of the table, and drew with struggling Barnsley.

Hull may have picked up their first win since the New Year with an injurytime 2-1 victory over Middlesbrough, but Bilic says the outcome is in West Brom’s hands.

He said: “Against these teams we have lacked intensity. It was us who lacked focus.

“In those games, we didn’t provoke things on the pitch. We were waiting for something to happen by default.

“Nothing happens by default in football, you have to earn it. There are no free lunches in the Championship.”