West Bromwich Albion striker Simon Cox has pinpointed the Baggies' fighting spirit as the key to their proud away record ahead of their clash with Bristol City.

Cox and Co head to Bristol today having lost just once on their travels in the Championship – a defeat at Barnsley.

The Baggies forward, who moved to The Hawthorns from Swindon Town last year, believes the players' attitude has been crucial to the successful run on the road.

He said: "We have a never-say-die attitude when we play away. We like to try to play a game of attacking football and, when we get the chances, we tend to take them.

"Teams obviously have to come at us because they're at home and it suits us – we can sit back and then hit them. It's nice for us.

"If we can keep our run going it will be great. We need to keep a run and, if we can go from now until the end of the season, then I think dreams will be made."

Cox helped the Baggies stay in the FA Cup with a 2-2 draw at Reading last Saturday but the former Swindon hitman, who has converted to an attacking midfield role, insists promotion remains the main aim.

He said: "No 1 priority is obviously promotion as it gets us back into the Premier League, but we want to do well in the FA Cup.

"We're still in the hat, which is the pleasing thing. There was desire from the boys, we showed a never-say-die attitude and managed to get the goal we deserved in the end.We were hoping for a couple of days off, but now we have to play the replay."

The Baggies are still counting the cost of a bruising encounter at the Madejski Stadium and manager Roberto Di Matteo could be without up to eight first-team regulars for this afternoon's BBC TV clash at Ashton Gate.

Albion will almost certainly be without Gonzalo Jara, Marek Cech, Abdoulaye Meite, James Morrison, Ishmael Miller and Giles Barnes through injury, while Jerome Thomas and Youssouf Mulumbu are suspended.

It means either Robert Koren or Graham Dorrans could be fielded in a less-favoured holding midfield roll while the Baggies' bench is likely to be packed with youth-teamers.

Midfielder Joss Labadie, aged 19, travels after returning from his loan spell at Cheltenham and will be in the squad, along with 17-year-old duo Sam Mantom and Kayleden Brown.

Mantom is a central midfielder from Stourbridge, while Brown, a left-sided midfielder, is a Wales youth international.

Di Matteo said: "It's a great experience for the kids but it's not an ideal situation for us. But that's how it is and we will try to do our best with what we have."