View: West Brom fans can kiss goodbye to FA Cup run after fixture announcement
West Brom versus West Ham promises to be one of the more exciting fixtures of the FA Cup fourth round due to sub-plot of Slaven Bilic taking on his former club.
Luckily, that fixture at the London Stadium will take place at 3pm on Saturday and has avoided being broadcasted by BBC and BT – even though it would have made sense if it was aired on live television.
It was met with relief that the fourth-round tie would take place at that time and on that day as it means that plenty of fans are expected to travel to the capital for it but, of course, going further into the cup means that fixtures are going to pile up elsewhere.
West Brom announced via their official Twitter account on Monday that their away Championship clash against Cardiff will now take place on January 28 – a Tuesday night.
West Brom will take on West Ham in the FA Cup just three days before that trip to South Wales and it is very much expected that Bilic will name a weakened side at the London Stadium.
Promotion from the Championship has to be West Brom’s priority.
Not only would a return to the Premier League be fitting of the brilliant work that Bilic has done this season but the financial benefit of being in the top-flight far outweighs reaching the latter stages of the FA Cup.
It sadly means that West Brom fans can expect a second-string team to be selected at West Ham so that a full-strength one can be named at Cardiff three days later. Express & Star journalist Joseph Masi also expects this to happen.
It is not ideal that this is the case, especially as West Ham are more than likely going to put out a strong team as they have the freedom to push a bit harder in the cup.
Of course, Albion can still cause an upset in East London but what are the chances of that happening when they are struggling to see off poor Championships sides at the moment?
Hopefully they can prove us wrong but it does not look likely and we can kiss goodbye to another chance to go on a bit of a run in the cup.
In other West Brom news, Albion are on the verge of agreeing a deal with this free agent.