‘Pressure’ – David Prutton predicts result of West Brom clash v Huddersfield
David Prutton has made his prediction for Friday night’s Championship clash between West Brom and Huddersfield at The Hawthorns.
The Baggies picked up their first win of the Steve Bruce era last week thanks to a Karlan Grant brace against Hull, but they’re still in the bottom half of the league heading into the game.
As they take on fellow playoff hopefuls Huddersfield, Prutton wrote in his Sky Sports predictions column that he feels this is a chance to get back to where they ought to be but feels the honours will be split evenly in a 1-1 draw on the night.
“West Brom head into the weekend in the bottom half of the Championship table, which is quite remarkable really considering where they really ought to be,” he said. “Although they did finally get a first win under Steve Bruce last week.
“Huddersfield are on a remarkable run. They will hope that defeat in the FA Cup on Monday won’t halt their league momentum. This is a chance to keep the pressure on Bournemouth, I think they will stay unbeaten but it will be a draw.”
Must-win
We’ve gone past the point of ‘must-not-lose’ games for West Brom now and if the club want to get into the playoffs they must win this game.
After finally finding a system that balanced them in attack and defence, they now need to take advantage of the home crowd and the momentum and take points off a team looking to take one of those spaces from 3rd to 6th.
While even winning these games doesn’t mean the Baggies will make it to the playoffs, these victories build momentum and cause nerves elsewhere while there is little pressure on them to make it.
Huddersfield are level on points with Bournemouth in third place but have played three games more, so it’s a bit of a false position right now. A win for the Baggies cuts the gap between the sides to ten points, with a game in hand too.
It’s win or bust at this point and they have nothing to lose, so they might as well go for it. Fingers crossed Prutton has got this one wrong.
In other West Brom news, View: Stat shows one West Brom ace is glue to new-look attack despite potential struggle