Welcome back to Portman Road for tonight's game against West Brom, who look as though they are in a three way race for automatic promotion alongside Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.

We were well beaten at the Hawthorns at the start of the season, when Richard Wright was man of the match in our 2-0 defeat and although we have made progress since that game, we know we will be in for a very difficult 90 minutes.

The top three clubs have goals in their locker, that's what has set them apart from us certainly and the rest of the Championship to be honest. I look back to when Forest came here and their substitutes changed the game, with proven goalscorers in Dele Adebola and Rob Earnshaw coming off the bench to help them get a draw.

They've got five or six strikers capable of scoring goals, just as West Brom have and they will come to Portman Road tonight full of confidence after putting four past Newcastle in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Our lack of goals has been our problem all season and it cost us again at the weekend with the FA Cup defeat at Southampton. I didn't think we deserved to lose the game but we didn't do enough to win it either.

We were bitterly disappointed not to be in the hat for the Fifth Round, especially the way the draw panned out with a home tie against a Premiership club [Portsmouth] to look forward to.

I take a lot of responsibility for the defeat at St Mary's. I'm always analysing my own performance as a manager, as much as I am the players, and looking back on it, I could have done a lot better.

It wasn't one major thing that was wrong but I look at the trip down on Friday, my team talk, the team selection. I didn't make many changes to the team that beat Coventry but one or two can make a difference. Players have to take responsibility as well, obviously. Coaches can't run for them when they cross that white line but we can give them the right information and like I say, I don't think my own performance at the weekend was that great but I've got to learn from that - and I will.

The defeat at Southampton was reality check for us after the euphoria of that late drama against Coventry in our last home game and maybe we hadn't got that out of our system at St Mary's.

Getting the three points against Coventry in the manner we did - especially as we have been on the receiving end of late goals ourselves - did give everyone a boost but a week later and we are out of the FA Cup. Bigger, more experienced teams than us have suffered that immediate change in fortunes. It happens in football but it's another lesson for us. Next time we get a good result, we've got to keep our feet on the floor. As much as we can enjoy the moment, we know there is a lot of hard work ahead of us at this Football Club.

Another disappointment about the defeat at Southampton was the hamstring injury to Jon Walters that will mean he certainly misses tonight's game and he could be out for a few weeks.

Jon is a big player for us and when he's not playing, we miss him. He's been fantastic for me since I've been at the Club and there is no doubt he could play in the Premier League.

I know he has been involved with Ireland as well, at U21 and B level and he shouldn't rule out getting back on the international scene. It's hard to get recognised when you are playing in a team that is losing game, like we were at the start of the season, but he has to keep doing the business for us and see where it takes him. Giovanni Trapattoni [Republic of Ireland boss] will have his scouts and if I get a phone call, it's pretty obvious what I would say.

While Jon misses out tonight, we have Jon Stead available again after his suspension. It was hard on the boy to get the red card in the first place at Crystal Palace and we felt we had to defend him with the appeal. To see him handed an extra game was very frustrating. I certainly don't think we were guilty of wasting the appeal panel's time.

I didn't feel bad about appealing but it may make me think twice the next time we're in that situation.

Enjoy the game.