[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The vital and necessary win over Rotherham on Wednesday, coupled with results going our way elsewhere, puts our fate firmly back in our own hands as we head into the final month of the regular season. Coventry and Preston have nine points to make up on us from only fifteen available to them, meaning that a maximum of two more wins - in reality, probably less - will assure us of a playoff place.

As we'd ideally like to avoid it coming down to the last match against Preston, there's no better time to get cracking than against Sunderland this weekend. Losing to them in the corresponding fixture last spring was a rare blip, the first time they'd won at the Hawthorns since 2007; though they followed it up with another victory at the Stadium of Light in the winter, and are thus hunting their first league double over us since that 2006-07 campaign, they're now winless in the last three matches.

It has, however, also been a disciplined spell for the Black Cats on either side of Easter with four clean sheets in five, three of which ended as no-score draws; the glaring exception was a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Blackburn, so the Great Wall of Wearside is there to be breached for teams with the ability to do it. I'd expect Mike Dodds to set up for the clean sheet once again and see if his side can snatch a goal on the break, but hopefully Albion have got the momentum after Wednesday to get the job done.