West Bromwich Albion captain Kevin Campbell is insistent that this week's midwinter bonding session in Dubai could not have come at a better time following the Baggies' embarrassment at Fulham.

Saturday's 6-1 defeat at Craven Cottage was Albion's worst defeat in almost three years and their heaviest since Bryan Robson took charge 15 months ago.

But Campbell believes that a bit of sun on their backs in the Arabian desert will have the same positive effect as last February's season-turning retuning trip to Florida.

Albion came back all the better for that refuelling break, as they showed by producing probably their best performance of the season to beat Birmingham City.

With the next pair of crucial games on the agenda being against two of their main relegation rivals, Steve Bruce's Blues again preceded by Middlesbrough on Saturday week, Albion need a similar refreshment course.

But, after the shock of the players having extra training yesterday, Campbell is adamant that his team will come back all the stronger for another few days in the sun.

"It worked for us last season," the Albion skip-per said. "It looks like we need more of it after getting stuffed like this.

Other clubs do it. Why shouldn't we? It has to work for us. It's certainly not going to make it any worse.

"People may talk but we'll be training out there, sometimes twice a day. We're not going out there for a 'jolly-up'.

"It's a change of scenery and working in the nice weather will make it more of a pleasure. It gives us the chance to get everyone back together again, and come back for that Boro game raring to go. It's pick-your-heads-up time. We cannot afford to wallow in this defeat."

Admittedly, with Nwankwo Kanu and Diomansy Kamara due back after African Nations' Cup duty, Campbell cannot even guarantee to find himself playing against Boro, despite scoring for the second successive Saturday.

Albion also have the experience of Steve Watson to slot back in after a groin injury, as well as the badly-missed Paul Robinson, who was suspended on Saturday. But Campbell is looking for the trip to Dubai to mentally re-energise the troops after such a demoralising Craven Cottage caning.

"We have to get that spirit back," he said. "We had it against Blackburn. We didn't have it against Sunderland, yet we had it the week before that.

"It's not consistent enough and we've got to get that consistency. After we went away last year, I felt we were pretty consistent and we need to get that togetherness back again.

"You're only as good as your last game and this was a pretty bad one for us but we're going to be back at The Hawthorns for the next one, for a sixpointer against Boro, who've just beaten Chelsea, a week after losing 4-0 at home to Aston Villa. That just sums up the crazy results in this league but the consistent teams are the ones who move on and, if we want to be permanent fixtures in this league, we have to be consistent.

"That will be a real 'Boing Boing' game and we have to get three points from it. We'll be back on our home patch and we have to be strong there and bring the crowd into it.

"The lads are really hurt by this defeat but we've just got to dust ourselves down. I take it hard when we lose and, to lose 6-1, I feel embarrassed as the fans were fantastic and really got behind us, because they knew we were trying.

"But when you have a bad defeat like that, you have to bounce back and get your chins up and we know we've got a real scrap on our hands."