West Brom manager Tony Mowbray has admitted his side's FA Cup run could now start to impact on their main priority of achieving promotion back to the Barclays Premier League.
But Mowbray insisted that the Baggies would still pay full respect to the competition and he intends to field his strongest available team in Saturday's fifth round clash at Coventry.
Mowbray is aware how Albion ran out of steam after losing a replay after extra-time and a penalty shoot-out to Middlesbrough at the same stage last season.
West Brom had looked certainties for automatic promotion but won only three of their final 12 games and lost the play-off final to Derby at Wembley.
With most of their main promotion rivals in league action this weekend, Mowbray is aware the pressure could start to increase on his fourth-placed team if results go against them.
Mowbray said: "We are at the stage now where it (the FA Cup) does impact on your League programme.
"The fact other teams at the top of the Championship are playing league games, and we're not, means potentially it can add pressure to the situation.
"You could find yourself in a situation where you are six points behind (leaders) Watford with a game in hand - and it then becomes a game you've got to win."
Mowbray added: "I'm also fully aware that last season the cup had an impact on our league performances.
"People don't understand how mentally draining losing a penalty shoot-out after extra time can be - which is what happened with us against Middlesbrough.
"It can be psychologically very tough. Last year we played Sunderland at home after that and it was a mentally draining game which was must-win at the time and we didn't get the result despite playing well.
"Looking at the statistics for last year, we won three of the last 12 league games which clearly wasn't good enough but this year we're more confident of going on and doing considerably better than that."
Although aware of the consequences of an FA Cup run, Mowbray has enormous respect for the competition and will be looking to steer the Baggies through to the quarter-finals.
He said: "Winning games is what it's all about and the confidence that gives you. It gets you used to a winning habit. We've been through stages this year where we've not played well and won.
"We'll accept that now because we get the publicity that we are a good footballing team and do play a passing game yet at the same time there are occasions when you can't play your football but still need to win those games.
"We'll take a few of those between now and the end of the season without changing our philosophies and still wanting to be team that plays in a certain style and still tries to score goals.
"The cup is about getting through to the next round. The worst case scenario would be a replay but let's got to the Ricoh Arena, put out our strongest team, try and get to the next round and not worry about what impact it will have down the line.
"You can't have that scenario of 'let's get out of the FA Cup' which is a great competition. But if that is the scenario on Saturday evening, then you won't find me crying into my tea."
South Korean international midfielder Do-heon Kim is poised to make his West Brom debut against the Sky Blues.
Kim joined Albion on loan last month from Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma with a view to a permanent move in the summer. The 25-year-old earned his Hawthorns move by impressing during a training spell with the Baggies.
Mowbray is confident of having at least two of his injured players available to face Coventry after Roman Bednar, Zoltan Gera and Robert Koren were all ruled out of the midweek clash with Sheffield United.
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