[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

For the third time in little over a month, Ryan Mason again finds himself in the position of requiring a win tonight to shore up a position which looks less and less tenable with every passing week. The squad's inherent weaknesses and limitations are probably his best defence against criticism, along with the eight-point cushion against relegation; we do, astonishingly, remain marginally closer to the playoffs as things stand. But the fact that we seem to end every match with the team we should have started with, either frantically chasing a game we blew in the first half or desperately defending an advantage gained during an all-too-brief spell of dominance, doesn't indicate high levels of strategic genius operating behind the scenes. And it's hard to shake the feeling that it's getting worse, not better.

It's highly likely that tonight's visitors Sheffield United will be a tougher nut than either Swansea or Oxford before them. Unbeaten in six - four of them consecutive wins - they're looking a lot more like the team everyone expected to show up this season. For Albion, the continuing absence of Collyer and Wallace is augmented by doubts over Mowatt, leaving Molumby and Diakite to run the engine room. There are unquestionably goals in the side, but unfortunately they're coming at both ends right now, and one more freely than the other. With Tyrese Campbell and Patrick Bamford on hand to swiftly punish any prannying about at the back, Albion simply can't afford to go behind in this one as we have so often recently.

It's not an encounter I'd choose to have my job riding on, but here we are. Mason has made plenty of poor decisions to bring himself to this point, and after getting quite lucky with the previous two must-win games, I suppose we'll see whether third time isn't the charm.