David Prutton predicts West Brom v Stoke Championship clash for Sky Sports
David Prutton has opted for a stalemate in Stoke when West Brom make the short trip to The Potteries on Saturday 15 April.
The Sky Sports’ Football League expert has predicted a 1-1 scoreline in the clash between 11th and 15th in the Championship table.
It is a must win game for Carlos Corberan’s team if they are to keep their play-off aspirations alive whilst Stoke are in the no man’s land of effectively having nothing to play for in the closing weeks of the season.
Writing in his Sky Sports prediction column, Prutton believes that the Baggies will benefit from teams above them dropping points, with a 2-2 draw The Den between Preston and Millwall.
That could leave the door open to the top six with three points needed from every last match day if they want to jump into that mix for Premier League promotion.
Ominous warning for WBA
Yes, it’s a cliche but West Brom now face six cup finals if they are to make the play-off spots.
For the games that will follow, it is imperative that the Baggies secure all three points against Stoke as they can’t afford to fall further behind. Prutton’s prediction needs to be proven wrong by WBA who will need to go one better.
Winning breeds confidence which is what Corberan’s men need. The more momentum the better in what will be a tough challenge to secure the required points.
It is unrealistic to expect 18 points to be collected in the final games but if West Brom are to secure a playoff spot, they will need to get quite close to a maximum return from their remaining Championship fixtures.
On Saturday, it will need to be the first victory in five league games and in an ominous warning, the first away win since the 2-3 success over Luton on 14 January.
In other West Brom news, Carlos Corberan speaks out about West Brom players snubbing Josh Griffiths after incident v QPR.