Michael Appleton shares West Brom play-off prediction with Championship ‘twist’ on the cards
Michael Appleton believes West Brom are in the running to finish in the Championship play-off spots after developments swung in his former club’s favour on Saturday.
Millwall and Blackburn both dropped points in their bid to finish in the top six, meaning that finishing as high as fifth remains in Albion’s hands.
Carlos Corberan’s side has two games in hand on some of their promotion rivals, with the first of them coming against Sunderland, who are 10th, on Sunday (23 April) at The Hawthorns.
Former Baggies player and coach Appleton has told Sky Sports Football that he doesn’t believe the current top six will remain as it is with other clubs vying to displace Coventry, who currently sit fifth, and Millwall in sixth.
He said: “I think there are a couple of twists yet. I really do. I think there are a couple of teams in form and two of them played each other tonight (Blackburn and Preston).
“West Brom and Sunderland are going to be really strong contenders.
“So I think there’ll be one or two more twists. Preston getting this late equaliser, they’ll still think they’ve got an outside chance and Blackburn have given themselves a good chance as well.”
Pressure is on
If you go back to the end of the Easter weekend, a lot of Albion fans thought their team’s promotion hopes were dead and buried.
But now, with seven points won out of the last nine available, we’re right back in it.
A lot of that is down to the fact that other play-off contenders have had some awful results lately but it’s also because Corberan has managed to galvanise his out-of-form, stricken troops and grind out two good wins over Stoke and Blackpool.
The issue is that they are both bottom-half teams that you’d expect West Brom to beat.
If you look at how the season has panned out, would you expect us to beat Sunderland, Sheffield United, Norwich and Swansea?
Because that’s pretty much what it’s going to take.
Any slip-up now will be costly because, as Appleton says, there are going to be plenty more twists and turns in this race for a top-six finish.
In other West Brom news, Jeff Stelling has also shared his verdict on the Albion’s late charge for a top-six finish.