West Brom will be hoping for Chris Wilder repeat assessment vs Sheffield United
West Brom kick-off a daunting run of Championship fixtures at Bramall Lane on Saturday.
With two huge opportunities passed by against relegation rivals Charlton and Oxford respectively, West Brom now know that Championship survival will have to be attained the hard way.
James Morrison is now taking interim charge of Albion for the rest of the season, and perhaps the fact that any dugout talk has been shelved until the summer could play into the Baggies’ hands.
However, his first test after receiving this confirmation is the small matter of taking on Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Saturday, which has been one of the Championship’s most notoriously difficult venues to get a result at over the years.
Chris Wilder was furious after West Brom beat Sheffield United
However, the recent bragging rights in this fixture belong with West Brom, after the Baggies put the Blades to the sword in a 2-0 win back on 12 December last year.
United were six-games unbeaten coming into that game, but second-half goals from Aune Heggebo and Karlan Grant saw Albion claim all three points at The Hawthorns.
After the game, Blades boss Chris Wilder was livid with his United players, tearing into them for their performances, whilst also admitting that West Brom dominated the game and could’ve won by more.
“I’m really annoyed and angry. As annoyed and angry as I’ve been for a long, long time,” he said via BBC Sport.
“I didn’t see it coming, I thought first half we were pretty good but you have to be more clinical. Everyone in the ground smelt the atmosphere before and the vulnerability of the opponent and that is when you have to be at your ruthless best.
“We’ve just allowed them to dominate the game and never looked like getting back in it. It felt like they thought the game would come to them and they didn’t need to do the fundamental basics.
“I apologise for that, we have to own it. We need to stick our chests out and take the criticism that comes our way for a second half performance that was miles off it and I mean miles off it.
“It could quite easily have been three or four and we couldn’t have had any complaints. It’s a massive backwards step.
“It was limp, lacklustre and everything I hate in a player and as a team. I have had to express that to the players.”
West Brom can expect different Sheffield United animal this time
Wilder is not the type of manager to forget things easily, and you can expect the overriding theme of his pre-match team talk to centre around their performance in the aforementioned reverse fixture.
United still harbour faint hopes of a play-off finish this season, but know that they’ll probably require at least seven or eight wins from their final 11 games if they want to make a run at the top six.
But, with three wins from their last four and their only defeat in that period coming at home to Coventry, the Blades are sharp at the moment, and will be confident of victory over the Baggies on Saturday.
However, the Championship is a crazy league where crazy things often happen, and so it would be oh so typical of this division should Albion go to Bramall Lane, winless in 11 league games, and get a much-needed victory.
For even more West Brom news and opinions, head over to Football Insider.