West Bromwich Albion manager Bryan Robson is still confident that his team can escape the drop - despite the setback of Southampton emulating the Baggies' weekend euphoria with an equally outstanding away victory.

No team in the Premiership's bottom three had won away from home all season until Saturday's Rob Earnshaw-inspired 4-1 win at The Valley.

To put his achievement in perspective, Earnshaw scored more goals in one afternoon than any Albion team had ever done in a Premiership match. But the Baggies came down to earth when Southampton won 3-1 at Middlesbrough the next day.

Southampton's surprise victory at The Riverside, which took the Saints above Crystal Palace, has stretched that gap to three points again. And, with the Baggies' goal difference being a lot worse than the teams above them, they are suddenly back to needing two results again.

Robson remains upbeat, though, basking in the continued quality of his side's football that finally got its true reward at The Valley.

"I always thought there was a performance like that one due," said Robson. "We've been playing some good football, especially in away games, without having the breaks. It was time a few things went our way.

"The lads have kept their belief, trained hard and that's all you can ask. When a player is sent off for the other team, it can sometimes be difficult against ten men but, in the second half, we passed the ball very well.

"All we can do is keep concentrating on our own performances. There's eight games to go and they're all tough games, but we just need to keep it going and keep performing like this."

Hat-trick hero Earnshaw added to those sentiments, promising: "We'll do whatever it takes. If it goes right to the last kick we'll take that. We'll still be fighting and, pray to God, we'll stay out of it."

While Earnshaw rightly stole most of the headlines for his coolly-taken treble, the contribution of his hard-working partner Geoff Horsfield should not be overlooked.

Since his man-of-the-match performance when recalled to inspire the 2-0 win over Birmingham City at the start of the month, Horsfield's efforts have suddenly made him an automatic selection ? and he was finally rewarded on Saturday with his first goal since September.

"I was due one," he said. "I was put in for a chance against Blues two weeks ago and played reasonably well and was probably unfortunate not to score that day.

"Then I got two against Chelsea in midweek which were both ruled out for offside, the second of which must have been a very tight decision, and I was just delighted to score

"You've got to take your hat off to Earnie. He's a natural scorer.

"He's been unfortunate as there are four strikers vying for two spots and he's been disappointed that's got left out, but he's answered the gaffer.

"He's not gone and moaned about it. He's come on and scored three fantastic goals and got us three points off a Charlton side going for Europe and flying.

"We've now won twice in three games and when you think that the other game was that 1-0 defeat at Chelsea.

"Everybody will be looking at the table now and saying West Brom are the ones in form."

West Bromwich Albion are to repeat their successful 'free travel' offer to away fans by agreeing to foot the bill for next month's trip to Middlesbrough.

Baggies chairman Jeremy Peace wrote off an estimated #30,000 by laying on 40 free coaches for Saturday's trip to play Charlton.

It was the third time the club have made this gesture of thanks to their magnificent fans over the past three seasons, and each time they have been rewarded with an Albion away win.

Now they hope that a repeat will bring another uplifting result when the Baggies head out on St George's Day to play Bryan Robson's old club.

"As a thank you to the travelling fans, we're laying on another 40 free coaches for the Middlesbrough game on April 23," said Peace. "And we'll be asking supporters for more of the same at The Riverside. The supporters were absolutely brilliant at Charlton."