[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Albion head into spring this week with a return to Friday night lights, as the win against Middlesbrough - unlikely but excellent - kept playoff hopes alive despite a six-point gap. Hull-bound tomorrow evening, we'll be looking to extend a winning streak versus the Tigers to seven games (stretching back to 2018) to get the ball rolling on a crucial eight-day period featuring three winnable matches.

Liam Rosenior's side have recently tightened up at the back, having struggled badly for clean sheets in the first half of the season, grinding out goalless draws against Preston and Stoke on top of a 1-0 win against Cardiff and, going back to January, a 3-0 triumph over QPR. And of course, Albion's recent away form is the Achilles heel that has us floundering in mid-table rather than elbowing Burnley aside in a charge to glory; with just one win on the road in all competitions in 2023, and that the thundering comeback at Luton nearly two months ago that could easily have gone the other way, we have to be at the races from kick-off and ask the kind of questions we did in the second half at Watford, without handing the opposition goals on a plate.

It's a clear banana skin, but Albion do need to produce the goods away from home at least once or twice in the coming months to have a realistic chance of finishing in the top six, and this is a major opportunity.