21-04-2022, 23:39
After a last-gasp win over Blackpool, there were few if any positives to take from a long, hard slog at the City Ground on Easter Monday; a match which saw Albion muster only one shot on goal all game, and none at all after Darnell Furlong's 17th-minute red card. The result is that nothing short of a 100% win record in the three remaining matches will now give the Baggies even the slightest hope of scraping into the playoffs, and three wins on the bounce is something we haven't achieved since last August.
First we host Coventry on Saturday, in their first visit to the Hawthorns since a 1-0 defeat courtesy of Steven Reid in March 2010. They flirted with the playoffs earlier in the season, but have since sunk down to our level, and a win at the weekend would see us swap places. They're certainly no more consistent in their results than us, though they've won their last two on the road; nevertheless, it would be a poor showing if we can't find a result in this.
A trip to Reading follows, with the Royals at the moment still needing results to go their way in order to rubber-stamp survival at Peterborough's expense. Having won our first game at the Madejski at the ninth attempt in 2020, there should be no lingering curse to keep us from delivering a performance, but it may still end up being an all-or-nothing must-win clash for both sides. Fingers crossed for Reading reaching mathematical safety before then.
We finish the season, not for the first time, with already-relegated Barnsley joining us in B71. The previous times we capped a season with a Tykes visit, in 2007 and 2010, were a mixed bag: the latter resulted in a 1-1 draw, the former in the famous 7-0 thrashing that saw Kevin Phillips at his sizzling best and Robert Koren first hitting his stride in an Albion shirt. Not much likelihood of those kind of fireworks this time round, but on paper, it is another winnable game that there can't be an excuse for bungling.
Three wins and a whole lot of extra luck required. Even if it's too little and too late, Albion and Steve Bruce need to show up with something during this run-in, as the threadbare dog-ate-my-homework cop-outs just aren't enough to cut it with fans who've spent the last two years watching the club go backwards.
"I would rather spend a holiday in Tuscany than in the Black Country, but if I were compelled to choose between living in West Bromwich or Florence, I should make straight for West Bromwich." - J.B. Priestley