In both their seasons in the Premiership to date, the chief requirement for most West Bromwich Albion fans has been to stay up.

There is an added proviso: if they do go down, then it should not be Wolverhampton Wanderers who replace them.

Three seasons ago, that worst case scenario came true, rectified only when, a year later, Wolves were relegated, Albion were again promoted and the two teams once more swapped places.

Last season, Albion fans were celebrating the double of staying up, while Wolves stayed down.

This time, not only do they have that same gold and black shadow hanging over them, they have a new fear - the revenge of the Baggies old boys at Cardiff City.

Cardiff have one former Albion player, Darren Purse, one loaned-out Albion player, Jason Koumas, and one who rejected Albion, Kevin Cooper, at Ninian Park. And the whole operation is run by Dave Jones - the former Wolves manager, who certainly owes the Baggies one for the way Albion stole promotion from under Wolves' noses four years ago.

What is more, Cardiff are now up to fifth in the Championship table, above Jones's old club Wolves, following their latest Koumas-inspired midweek win at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday.

And, in the case of Koumas, there is a growing fear that his season-long departure for the Valleys could come back to haunt them at The Hawthorns.

The Welsh midfielder used to exasperate both his Albion managers Gary Megson, the man who signed him, and Bryan Robson, the man who sent him out on a year's loan. But, as far as his old Albion team-mate Purse is concerned, it's all a question of how to handle Koumas to get the best out of him.

"The secret with Jase is putting your arm round him, encouraging him and telling him what a good player he can be. Not every player reacts well to constant bollockings. Some do, but Jason's not one of them.

"A lot gets said about Koumy, but I played half-adozen games with him in Albion's reserves at the end of last season and his attitude was excellent.

"Some players might have said 'I'm not interested in that' and sodded off.

"But Jason got his head down, did his bit and worked hard to get back in the team, even though, like me, he probably knew there wasn't much chance.

"And he's really benefited from coming down here with me to Cardiff.

"He's been in top form for us this season, playing as well as he did in the Albion team he got promoted with three years ago.

"A lot of our football comes through him and, if he can maintain that form, with the likes of Cameron Jerome and good, solid pros like Kevin Cooper on board, we've got to have a chance of going up."

If Purse does lead Cardiff to promotion in May, he could end up passing not only Albion but Blues along the way. But the London-born defender is not the sort to get over excited or publicly nurture any embittered sense of revenge about that.

"Bryan Robson was always honest with me," said Purse. "Maybe it baffled me that it took just one mistake to get me dropped and I never even got in the 16 again. But I've been in football long enough to know that he simply didn't fancy me as a player.

"And, when he told me that they'd had offers from Southampton and Cardiff, and that they'd accepted both bids, there wasn't much to think about as I'd have started the season as fourth choice at Albion.

"I went to speak to both Dave Jones and Harry Redknapp but there was just some gut instinct, the same as Jason had, that persuaded my wife and I to choose Cardiff. And, although we got off to a bit of a sticky start in the first four or five games when the new team was just bedding in, we've so far not been proved wrong.

"Dave Jones said to me 'Come and be my captain', and I didn't take much persuading.

"At my age I just want first team football, being part of what the manager calls his 'family'. And, with a new stadium round the corner, things are on the move.

"The only money the manager has so far spent was on me and if he's allowed to bring in one or two more in the January window, then who knows?"