Young Albion forward Chris Wood will welcome Swansea striker Craig Beattie back to the Hawthorns owing an unusual debt to the former Baggies striker.

The teenager will lead the line for the home side this evening, while Beattie looks to slam the brakes on his old team-mates’ promotion campaign by striking for the Swans.

But Wood admits the Scot’s desire for regular first team football has had a positive effect on his own Championship development.

Beattie called time on his two-year stint at the Hawthorns two months ago, after eventually giving in to the frustration that blighted his time in the West Midlands.

Yet his departure has helped Wood establish himself as a regular member of Roberto Di Matteo’s side and the natural deputy for Roman Bednar, who is missing tonight.

The youngster said: “It has definitely helped me. It’s opened up gaps and opportunities for me that have allowed me to be more involved in the first team that I would have thought at the start of the season.

“I am getting there but I still feel like a youth team player at the moment. It will be good to see him. He is doing alright down there.

“He needs to get a couple of games under his belt but I’m sure he’ll get a good reception when he comes back.”

Bednar’s back injury looks set to open the door for Wood to start this evening and the Kiwi is confident of proving to be an able deputy.

He said: “Hopefully Roman’s injury isn’t too bad and we will see him out on the pitch as soon as possible. But in his absence I will try to do a good job. I thought I did well on Saturday. I didn’t do overly well, but I put in some good balls and hopefully I impressed the manager.

“The game wasn’t too bad. The game went well and it was good to get a win and get back to winning ways. I was shocked to get on so early but you have to deal with that and I thought I put in a good performance.

“It had been a couple of weeks since we had a game and it’s always hard to get straight back into it so for five or 10 minutes we weren’t the best.

“But after that we kicked on and got stronger and got the win.”

Wood and Co will be aiming for back-to-back home wins after disposing of Reading on Saturday. The teenager, who is relishing the busy Championship fixture list, believes form at the Hawthorns will be key to the club’s promotion hopes.

He said: “It think it’s good having so many games and I think two games a week is something that a young guy like me thrives on.

“I want to get more game time, push on and make a name for myself so I am happy to have a lot of matches. Home wins are important. If we don’t win all our home games this season we need to win most of them.”

But Beattie will have other ideas returning to his former club on the back of his first Swans goal at the weekend. The former Celtic man opened the scoring against Ipswich and is determined to use it as the catalyst for more.

He said: “Goals always help. It doesn’t matter who you are, they give you a bit of confidence, especially the first. I’ve got off the mark now and hopefully there are more to come. I’m not going to rest on my laurels after one game I can assure you of that.

“I’m looking forward to tonight. I had a couple of years at Albion and hopefully I can see some friendly faces.

“But I want to come away with the points with Swansea.”