THE pressure was on. Now the pressure is off.

And that’s how quickly things can change.

Before Saturday, all the talk was about Albion getting dragged into another relegation battle.

Ninety minutes and three points later, the worries are eased and improving on last season’s 11th-placed finish is now the aim.

With the way points have been dropped in recent weeks, Saturday was all about the result.

It didn’t matter how it came about as long as it did.

In the end a stunning solo goal from Peter Odemwingie in the last minute gave Albion all the points after Scott Dann had cancelled out James Morrison’s cracking opener.

In all honesty, the performance wasn’t up there with the heights reached in previous weeks.

But although they weren’t spectacular, they were dominant against a poor Blackburn side.

From the word go, Albion were in control.

They manipulated the ball well, got into dangerous areas, and limited their hosts to very few chances.

The base was there – and much of that was down to the return of Paul Scharner.

With the Austrian in the middle, the Baggies look a much tougher side to beat and it hardly alters their pretty football ethos.

Admittedly, Scharner had a fairly quiet game. There were no fancy back-flicks, no surging runs, and the one chance he had to score, he mis-fired and screwed his effort wide.

It was his presence on the pitch which made a difference though.

Happy to sit alongside Youssouf Mulumbu and do the dirty work that goes unnoticed gave Albion the catalyst to success.

Blackburn’s midfield didn’t get a sniff.