Albion manager Tony Mowbray insists it will be business as usual this weekend, even though he will only get some of his international players back less than 24 hours before the match with Ipswich.

Mowbray currently has six of his key performers away on international duty and is praying that they all come back unscathed and ready for action as his team aim to extend their decent run of home form.

He will be treating Ipswich with the utmost respect - he was a player and coach at Portman Road and knows only too well what a capable side they are under Jim Magilton.

Albion put seven goals past Ipswich last season over their two fixtures - the last a 2-0 win in December. But Ipswich are currently fifth in the Championship this season, five places above the Baggies having won both their home games so far and drawn one and lost one on the road. Mowbray said: "We have six players away on international duty but, for those who remained, we have done some physical training last week.

"Robert Koren played 90 minutes for Slovakia and came through unscathed and Zoltan Gera scored for Hungary, so I hope the rest all come through.

"Those left behind, I hope have found the sessions have provided a bit of continuity from pre-season. Some have moaned a bit but it will do them no harm and stand them in good stead for the task ahead this weekend."

He continued: "The players had the weekend off to go and enjoy themselves with their families and they came back to work this week.

"We won't be getting the international players back until Thursday and even Friday, which is not ideal because we cannot do any team work for this weekend.

"It is not ideal when players have been away but we have the squad, I hope, to deal with it."

Mowbray said the smaller training sessions had at least given him chance to concentrate on individual players.

He said: "We have been able to individualise with certain players, work on their needs, work on their heading, their finishing and in between we have just tried to keep everyone fit and looking after themselves."

Mowbray spent nine years at Ipswich as a player and then as a coach and has fond memories of the Suffolk outfit.

He said: "We know we will be playing a football team at the weekend in a game against a team who will play and pass and try to score goals. The game against them last season was very much like that. It is difficult to get the ball off them and I know many of the coaching staff there very well and it has always been their philosophy to play that way.

"There is a dyed-in-the-wool style of playing there - we used to call it Ipswichitis! You must play the ball and pass the ball well and it does create attractive football so this weekend I am sure will be an entertaining football match. Obviously, the onus is on us as the home side to try to secure maximum points."

Mowbray is himself a fan of the passing game but said he learned his way of playing football way before his days at Portman Road - when he was working north of the border at Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.

He said: "Celtic were a club who liked to play attractive football - the fans demanded that it was played that way and it has been a part of what I have been brought up on for a long, long time. I have spent a bit of time at clubs where the players play that style and I think that is the way forward. The top teams all play that way - Manchester United dominate the ball, Arsenal dominate the ball, Chelsea, Liverpool and that is the way I want us to play."

Mowbray is aware he has his critics who believe that attractive football does not work in the Championship and that the clubs who grind out 1-0 results find their way into the Premier League. But he said: "I follow my own methods and my own beliefs. I respect fans have their views but I hope the fans who come every week can see what I am trying to achieve here and like what they see.

"I have set up this team the way I want and the idea is to make this club as successful as I can."