It was not the Baggies’ day again as we suffered a 3rd consecutive defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday, meaning our playoff chase will go on to the final day of the season.
I don’t really want to write this but I have to say it was one of the worst games and performances I’ve seen us play live. Even it is a game where we would of granted a place in the Championship play offs where this will now go to the 4th and final day of the season even before the International break and going into the Easter weekend we was 8 points clear from 7th and now Hull have closed the gap with their 3-3 draw to Ipswich to 2 points.
It will now be us and Hull that would go into the final day to secure a top six spot. After the result we have now dropped to 6th with Norwich drawing and I think they are safe and will be there but we deserve to be bottling it at this stage after 1 win in 7 games following the International break with that a 2-0 home win to Rotherham.
Our performances have not been great, I am now worried that we could drop out but we have done it before in the 2019-20 season where we was 10 points clear from 3rd at Christmas 2019 and looked very likely to be promoted but our results since the Covid lockdown in 2020, we did drop off allowing us and Brentford to battle it out on the final day. We came away with a 2-2 draw against QPR with Brentford losing.
Lets hope this could happen, it is still in our own hands and it is a home game to Preston and we do have a good home record. It is our away form that is costing us at the minute and it is something we must look to solve and if we do make play offs we play at home first so that does give us a bit of an advantage if we can maintain our home form.
Ok, lets focus on this match review at Sheffield this afternoon, it took 23 minutes for the Owls to score with Anthony Musaba converting from the corner that led Alex Palmer not reacting quick enough to give them the 1-0 lead.
However, the Baggies did try to get back ahead before half time with Yann M’Vila’s volley but it not find the net and it was the Owls leading at half time.
They would have been hoping for a response after the break – however, their task was made harder when Ugbo almost immediately doubled Wednesday’s advantage through a powerful, near-post strike.
At half-time I thought changes should be made in the second half where I thought Tom Fellows should come on for Matt Phillips and should play either Josh Maja or Brandon Thomas-Asante for Jed Wallace in attack. Phillips to me still does not look match fit and Tom Fellows has been in great form for us this season.
Anyways, it was more disappointment in the second half when my player to watch for this game Ike Ugbo doubled the Owls lead. This means it was a long afternoon at Hillsborough and knew there was no way back here even though Carlos made 4 changes following the goal.
It was more frustrating when Josh Windass tapped home from a rebound and gave Sheffield Wednesday all three points and would be safe from relegation this season. After being 3-0 down we started creating more opportunties and was unable to get anything out of it. It was a long frustrating day and now we could miss out of the play offs following this.
Lets just hope this time next week we would be in the play offs if not I think there should be a clear out in the Summer with contracts expiring and need to bring a few fresh players in.
Next up for us is a home game to Preston on Saturday 4th May with a early kick off at 12:30pm, Sheffield Wednesday have an away trip to Sunderland on the same day and same time as it’s the last day of the regular Championship season.
I want to say a big thank you to Black Country Albion Travel with John and Colin for sorting me tickets for this game where I was very close to not making it even though I wish I didn’t go now with my FOMO taking over lol but anyways it was a great coach and the pub stop on the way was brilliant.
Sheffield Wednesday: Beadle, Palmer, Iorfa, Bernard (Famewo 86), Valentin, Vaulks, Bannan (Diaby 77), Johnson, Musaba (Paterson 76), Windass (Gassama, 76), Ugbo (Smith 76)
Goalscorers: Musaba (22′), Ugbo (50′), Windass (69′)
West Brom: Palmer; Furlong, Bartley, Kipre, Townsend (Reach 55); Phillips (Fellows 55), Yokuslu, M’Vila (Mowatt 55), Johnston (Swift 71); Diangana, Wallace (Thomas-Asante 55).
Goalscorers: