West Brom and Hull City will do battle at The Hawthorns on Good Friday with one team having already secured their place in the play-offs taking on another club that still have ambitions of making a top six finish.
Having suffered recent back-to-back defeats to Millwall and Bristol City, West Brom bounced back in emphatic fashion by recording a convincing 4-1 home win over Preston North End to keep the west midlands outfit on track for a 4th place finish.
West Brom trail 3rd placed Sheffield United by six points and 2nd placed Leeds United by a nine point margin so it looks like The Baggies will have to make do with taking their chances of promotion via the play-off lottery at the end of the regular season.
The Baggies have won their last three home matches on the trot in the Championship with victories gained over Swansea City, Birmingham City and Preston North End, but the hosts have usually given their opponents a sniff at goal too this season, as they’ve scored a total of 48 goals and have conceded 28 to date.
Indeed, 17 of West Brom’s 21 home matches have seen both teams score.
Onto Hull City, and the visitors make their way down to the west midlands on the back of a disappointing 1-0 loss away at Middlesbrough and it doesn’t get any easier for The Tigers as they’ll now be up against a free-scoring West Brom outfit at The Hawthorns on Good Friday.
Prior to that loss at Middlesbrough, Hull had registered three wins on the bounce with victories against Ipswich Town, Reading and Wigan Athletic, but the visitors’ results away from home have quite simply been awful in recent weeks.
Hull City have lost six of their last seven matches on their travels with defeats at Blackburn Rovers, Derby County, Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Norwich City and Middlesbrough, but they nevertheless also carry serious goal threats in the shape of attacking trio, Bowen (21 goals), Campbell (12 goals) and Grosicki (9 goals).
In 10 of Hull’s 21 away matches both teams have scored, while two of the previous three encounters between these two teams at The Hawthorns have also seen both teams hitting the back of the net.
West Brom should win this, but Hull may well score as well to make life difficult for the hosts.