Friday Night Football at Kenilworth Road, Luton in the Sky Bet Championship as the Baggies are looking to get their first win in six games. Can they do it on a Friday night away from home that they’ve struggled with for years?
It’s the first time we play Luton Town again since that famous 3-2 win at the ground in January 2023 where we was 2-0 down in the first half and came back to win it 3-2 and got into the play off spots with that victory in Carlos Corberan’s first season in charge.
Now we come back in search for a first win since Plymouth Argyle on the 21st September, now we’ve gone 6 games without a win and drew 4 consecutive times in the league, can Luton away on a Friday night be the day to do it?, in my opinion the Baggies always struggle playing away on a Friday and we’ve haven’t won away on the day since December 2018.
Luton sit 22nd in the Championship where this is there first season back since being in the Premier League last season and could be looking at back to back relegations but I think they enough quality in their team but I cannot see them going down but won’t be going up either. They also scored 1 more goal than us this season with 14 goals and us on 13 goals. I say this is going to be a tricky fixture at Luton this coming Friday evening under the lights.
Player To Watch – Luton Town
A striker who is starting to show form in the last two games for Luton and that is Carlton Morris. He was excellent in that 3-0 win over Watford in their last home game and scored in the last fixture against Coventry City, they have problems in defence but with our struggles with scoring to date, I can see Luton’s attack could be deadly on Friday and I’m going for Carlton Morris to be their key player.
I predict he would score against the Baggies on Friday night, I feel we would concede and when away from home normally a striker from the opposition would score past us. Morris was a key player for Luton Town in the Premier League last season with 10+ goals and am surprised why a Premier League side hasn’t gone in for him over the Summer as he could do a decent job for a team below in that league and would be enough to keep Luton in the Championship this season or mount a play off challenge late on in the season if they start to improve results.
Player To Watch – West Brom
Player to watch for the Baggies is always tricky and it’s starting to get tricky with our recent run, I’m going for one of our defenders that is Torbjorn Heggem.
He has created a lot of defensive actions this season and is good at inceptioning the attacking opponents and needs to be at his best to stop Luton’s attacking threats at this fixture especially with their strikers in Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo.
With Luton who are strong at their home ground he has been great in our away fixtures so far this season and has been a great upgrade in Conor Townsend and with him, Bartley and Alex Palmer in goal they can do a lot to stop the opposition such as in Luton Town scoring early on at Kenilworth Road on Friday.
My Line Up V Luton Town
My Line Up consists of a few changes, Holgate would make his first start alongside Semi Ajayi. I then keep the same midfield pairings in Mowatt and Racic in attack I would make 2 play in the wing with Karlan Grant and Tom Fellows then I play two strikers with Josh Maja and Devante Cole making his start at the club where I would give him a chance to start with us lacking in goals of late.
Prediction V Luton Town
Last time out I went for a 4-1 win over Cardiff City and that ended 0-0 where we now drawn 4 times in a row. This game a Friday Night I normally tip us to finally break the hoodoo but then we lose.
Onto Luton, I predict we would have a chance in the first 2 minutes but the Luton keeper would save it for a corner, following on a corner I think Luton would break and provide a counter attacking play and then Carlton Morris would score early on to make it 1-0 to Luton Town causing an early misery to our away hoodoo on a Friday.
The Baggies would try and get back into the game but would struggle to score again, I say we would play well during the first half but would stay 1-0 at half time.
Second Half, Luton again in the 50th minute mark would make it 2-0 to Luton I’m sorry to say this our struggles would continue and Carlton Morris again gets the brace. Throughout the second half the Baggies would create more chances but would again struggle with Luton’s defence being better against our attacking play.
Late on, both sides would be end to end but there wouldn’t be any more goals in this game and am going for Baggies first defeat in my predictions this season where Luton would beat us 2-0 on a Friday night.
Prediction: Luton Town 2-0 West Brom
Goalscorers for Luton Town: Carlton Morris (2)
I hate to predict games for the Baggies but I haven’t predicted us to lose so far this season and think we are going to lose on Friday. We normally never do well on the road on Friday’s having not won since December 2018 with a 2-1 win over Sheffield United and after that we have lost every game expect Leeds United last season with a 1-1 draw and embarrassing results to Rotherham on Good Friday, I just cannot see that ending on Friday.
I hope it does end and would end well and hope my prediction is wrong, it was wrong last weekend where I said we come out 4-1 winners over Cardiff City but that ended 0-0 and now it’s my first defeat prediction since Sunderland last season.