Aston Villa will have first bite of the cherry as we get to the pointy end of the Championship season, with the hosts entertaining west midlands rivals, West Brom, in the 1st leg of this play-off semi-final at Villa Park.
Aston Villa produced a fantastic sequence of results to reach the play-offs as The Villans racked up 10 league wins on the trot under manager Dean Smith as they reached 5th spot in the Championship but were unable to overhaul their play-off opponents, West Brom, after failing to win their last two matches of the season.
This was perhaps understandable as they had to travel to Elland Road to face a Leeds United outfit who were desperate to claw back the second automatic promotion spot from their Yorkshire rivals, Sheffield United, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Aston Villa then hosted top of the league Norwich City last weekend with The Canaries looking to capture the league title, which they duly did with a 2-1 win over Villa.
Nevertheless, Aston Villa had previously won five on the trot at home which included notable wins against Derby County, Middlesbrough and Bristol City, but they did suffer a 2-0 defeat at home to West Brom in mid-February.
West Brom’s play-off position of 4th place in the Championship was sealed a couple of matches ago which was just as well as The Baggies succumbed to a 3-1 defeat away at play-off chasing Derby County at Pride Park last weekend to end their season on a loss.
This was a particularly disappointing result for West Brom as a win would have lifted them up into 3rd place on goal difference at the expense of Leeds United who inexplicably lost 3-2 away at already relegated Ipswich Town on the final day of the season.
With three wins from their previous four matches, it had looked like West Bromwich were making a strong finish, but the setback at Derby County now has the market making them the underdogs at Villa this Saturday.
The visitors make the short journey to Villa Park on the back of four defeats from their last six away matches with losses at Leeds United, Millwall, Bristol City and Derby County, and the appointment of caretaker-manager Jimmy Shan (who was one of the first team coaches) after the sacking of former manager, Darren Moore, is now starting to raise questions over his experience in these situations.
The last six meetings between these two sides have produced the following results; W2, D2, L2 - the added significance of this being a play-off match may result in a draw here.