‘Fear’: Sky Sports pundits deliver West Brom promotion verdict ahead of sudden-death clash v QPR
Sky Sports pundits Dominic King and Sami Mokbel have delivered their verdicts on West Brom and promotion ahead of the game against QPR on Wednesday.
A win will be enough to see West Brom secure their top-two spot despite slipping against Huddersfield on Friday night.
King believes that West Brom will do it if they can just “hold their nerve” and that Slaven Bilic has been “outstanding” this season.
Talking on the Sunday Supplement show (Sky Sports, Sunday, 11am) King said, “We talk about managers doing great work – Bilic also deserves credit for what he’s done at West Brom.
“They had a misstep against Huddersfield on Friday night but they are a Premier League club in all but name. They just need to hold their nerve in the final game now.
“Bilic has been outstanding since he came in. I’d like to see them go up. They always add something to the Premier League.”
Mokbel had a warning for West Brom, though, and claimed that if the Baggies missed out on automatic promotion, they would really struggle in the play-offs.
“You fear for them if they don’t go up automatically. You just lose 5%, you’re so disappointed that you go into the play-offs in a low.
“if they don’t go up automatically I suspect they would find it increasingly difficult to get back in the Premier League through the play-offs.”
We go along with this completely. The last thing we want is to go through the play-offs after being in the top-two for the majority of the season.
Look at what happened to Leeds last season. They dropped into the play-offs right at the death and then lost to Derby County in the semi-finals.
They’ve got the job done this season and now it’s time for West Brom to do the same.
We’ve been given a golden lifeline by Brentford losing after it looked like we’d blown it on Friday.
The game against QPR is a sudden-death play-off now for the Premier League. Win it and we’re there. Lose it or draw and we’re very likely to have to go into the lottery of the play-offs.
It’s a second chance but one that no fans want to use.
In other West Brom news, Hal Robson-Kanu has sent a message to this Leeds player after Albion’s loss handed the Whites promotion.
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