West Brom vs Southampton: David Prutton predicts scoreline for clash at The Hawthorns
David Prutton expects West Brom to come out on top in Friday’s (16 February) Championship clash with Southampton.
The promotion challengers face off at The Hawthorns in a huge contest at the top end of the division.
Southampton were beaten 3-1 by Bristol City in midweek, while West Brom saw off Cardiff City 2-0 on home soil.
West Brom have not lost any of their past 11 league fixtures on a Friday in a run stretching back to a 1-0 reverse against Chelsea in May 2017.
Prutton backed Albion to beat Southampton 2-1 in his prediction for Sky Sports and added: “It has been a decent week for West Brom so far, even if they’d have been disappointed not to have held on for the win at Ipswich on Saturday. They are still well-placed in the race for the play-offs as well.
“Southampton’s response to that defeat in midweek will be fascinating. They threatened it at the weekend, but bounced back to beat Huddersfield in remarkable fashion.
“Now they need to rally or Leeds could race away with second. I have a feeling they could slip again.”
West Brom’s poor record against Southampton
Southampton’s loss at Ashton Gate ended a club-record run of 23 games without defeat – the majority of those games ending in victory.
The Saints did remarkably well to close down and then climb above Ipswich Town to claim second place not so long ago.
Russell Martin’s side have since slipped to third but can move back into the automatic promotion spots with a win at The Hawthorns.
West Brom will have something to say about that, of course, and they have regained some momentum again over the past week.
Home wins over Birmingham City and Cardiff City, sandwiching a dramatic draw at Ipswich Town, has consolidated Albion’s grip on fifth.
Perhaps more pertinent than that ‘Friday fixture’ statistic is that the Baggies have lost five of their last six against Southampton in the league.
If Carlos Corberan’s men were to put that right in this latest encounter, they will move a giant step closer to sealing that play-off spot.
In other West Brom news, Tony Brown questioned a “strange” development in Albion’s win over Cardiff.
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