Albion captain Jonathan Greening hopes to ensure a happy holiday by helping the Baggies end their 26-year wait for a win at Stoke.

Greening is desperate to put one over on best friend Richard Cresswell, to win the summer bragging rights over the Stoke forward.

The former York team-mates are already planning their latest joint family holidays and Greening wants to be the one smiling on the beach.

He said: “I spoke to him and he has not been playing as much as he would like this year, after playing a lot last year. But he is still really enjoying it and hopefully he can get on the pitch, so we can enjoy playing against each other again.

“He is my best mate and we’re going on holiday again next year, so playing against him again would be nice.”

Greening will skipper Albion, as they bid to combat Stoke’s aerial bombardment and move off the bottom of the table.

He said: “It’s a massive six-pointer, even at this early stage. You need to beat the teams around you and we need to go to and try to get the points, to try to get off the bottom of the league.

“A fan stopped me the other day and told me we hadn’t won there for 20-odd years. We know it’s going to be tough.

“They have had some good scalps and beaten some of the big boys, like Arsenal, so we need to be on top of our game.”