If you listen to urban myth then all strikers are a selfish bunch of individuals who would quite willingly trade in their granny to poach a goal but Kevin Campbell is slightly leftfield of your average centre-forward.

The 35-year-old was every inch the modern-day Father Christmas at Sandwell General Hospital yesterday afternoon as he dished out gifts at the children's ward and was his usual affable self for all and sundry.

Campbell is far happier when talking about a team ethic rather than any individual goals and his benevolence even stretched to admitting he was happy to be involved in squad rotation if it increased Albion's Premiership pedigree.

However, it would be remiss to mistake Campbell's gregarious nature and social conscience with that of a player killing time.

After shaking off a niggling ankle injury that has restricted him to six Premiership starts this season, it is ironic that Campbell faces the prospect of locking horns with Manchester City once again this weekend.

It will be 11 months ago to the day on Saturday when Campbell signed a contract at The Hawthorns with Albion firmly rooted to the bottom of the table.

However, in only his second appearance he scored a valuable goal against Manchester City and helped Albion to a 2-0 victory thus ending a run of 14 games without a victory.

Campbell and Zoltan Gera were the catalysts for Albion's revival and ensured their names were etched in Albion's history books forever.

However, both Campbell's and Gera's impact this season has been minimal as they have been hampered by injuries but, with Campbell now available and Gera soon to enter the fray, manager Bryan Robson has set them the challenge of repeating last year's standards and replacing the African Nations' Cup-bound Kanu and Diomansy Kamara.

"If I could get the chance to make an impact like I did last season then I wouldn't turn it down," Campbell said with a glint in his eye.

"Having a niggling injury can be frustrating but I definitely want to get back in there and do the business, as does everyone.

"Obviously the team has been playing quite well of late so if I have to bide my time to get back in the team, so be it.

"However, the be all and end all is West Bromwich Albion Football club progressing in the Premiership and whoever plays I want us to improve.

"I would love to play my part and I want to play every week but, realistically, that isn't going to happen and, because of the way the fixtures are, you have to rotate your squad.

"Nevertheless, we have a big enough and a good enough squad to rotate now and players have proved that everyone can do a job, which should work in our favour."

It may be Campbell's first Hawthorns anniversary on the horizon but he is adamant he has witnessed tangible signs of improvement since his arrival.

Albion are involved in another relegation battle but are likely to spend Christmas outside the bottom three; after the travails of last season, that can be classed as relative progress.

"I think the club is moving in the right direction," added Campbell. "The way the team has played in the last three or four weeks, you can see a marked improvement.

"What we need is back-toback wins and if we can string those results together over the Christmas period then everything will look different from a loftier position.

"We want to consolidate and we want to be a Premiership team again next season and that is the most important thing.

"From a personal point of view, everything was crammed into last season pretty quickly. I have been pegged back this year with a niggling injury, which has taken longer than we first thought to clear, so I can't wait to be involved. I am now back training with the lads and am smiling again."

Campbell's smile is infectious and within seconds of our interview finishing he was soon holding court with future Albion fans.

While Campbell is firmly focused on the job in hand, his sincerity is genuine. Here is a man with a firm grasp on the bigger picture in life.

He said: "The nurses work really hard and when we turn up and see the sick kids people really appreciate us coming. You see the smiles on the kids' faces and everyone is happy to have us here; it feels like such a good thing to do."