Luke Moore has been backed by his manager to turn around his largely inauspicious start to life at West Bromwich Albion.

The on-loan Aston Villa striker, who will make his deal permanent in the summer for £3.5 million, has not had the best of times since making his way across the West Midlands from Villa Park.

He is yet to score for his new club and, although he has shown glimpses of the qualities that persuaded manager Tony Mowbray to bring him in, his sending off against Leicester City on Saturday with his side leading 1-0 - effectively cost them three points.

Mowbray said the incident was the turning point in the game but refused to lambast his newest recruit, opting instead to back the striker to return stronger and better once his ban has been served.

Moore's sending off, the player's first in his five-year career, came a week after Mowbray said it would be a beneficial idea for referees to spend time on training grounds getting to know the character of players, which he believes would result in fewer red cards being brandished unnecessarily.

The manager said: "What is a definite red these days? You look at the challenges going around now and I do not think that referees know what are definite reds any more. And we see so many of them now.

"If we had seen that tackle six months ago people might have said it was not a red. There is frustration for us and for Luke but when he returns to the team I am sure he will take us to where we want to go."

Moore will return for the last six games of the Coca-Cola Championship, which will see Albion playing four of their remaining games away from home.

It is a situation that is not causing any concern for Mowbray. He said: "I am not worried about that at all. It is always difficult to win the games away from home but, as we have found out this season, playing at home is never easy so we may be able to use the situation to our advantage. Teams like Bristol City and Stoke are finding that at the moment as well.

"Our next two games Charlton away and Colchester at home are every bit as difficult as each other in my eyes. Both are huge games.

"Teams at the bottom are capable of beating teams at the top and there are also plenty in this division who would like to swap places with us.

"Of course, we are disappointed that we have only picked up one point from our last two games but we still have to realise that we are in a very strong position.

"We have got nine big, big games to come and we should be looking forward to them, not getting side-tracked by past results.

"We will try and be as professional as we can and win football matches.

"We have a gap after Friday, although some players will be away with their countries, and during that time we will take stock and get our eye firmly on the ball to make sure we know what we need to do."

* The transfer window for loan signings closes at midnight, Thursday 27 March and not midnight tonight, as we stated in The Post yesterday.