West Bromwich Albion v. Stoke City (7th April) [R]

[DevilDave]

Despite what our illustrious manager has said in the press, I firmly believe that these two tough fixtures on either side of Easter Sunday will indeed determine if we might still have a chance for an automatic promotion place... or endanger our hold on a ticket to the play-offs.

Stoke have always been a bogey team for Albion. We couldn't beat them at their place early this season. Saturday, the Potters come to the Hawthorns with a chance to be in the play-offs still hanging in the balance. We could potentially reduce the number of contenders should we earn all three points, however.

Albion will need to play far better than we did against QPR last week if we hope to win. Rangers had multiple opportunities to potentially tie or win that match.

[DevilDave]

This season, certain pundits and opposition managers have called Albion a 'Premiership side' in the Championship. Unfortunately, for one eight-minute stretch of the first half, we looked more like a mid-table Conference side rather than a team challenging for promotion. :mad:

Three goals given up to Stoke in that span doomed us. Second half we were better but only could manage one from Koumas. Stoke were quite happy to sit back in the second half, and we failed to put sufficient pressure on them.

We will need to somehow bounce back at Norwich Monday. We will NEED to claim three vital away points.