Analysis: Battling West Brom take their play-off push to the wire
Forty-five Championship fixtures played out of their 46 and Albion can still dream of a place in the play-offs.
Sure, before a ball was kicked this season Baggies would have expected better – and certainly not the drama of slim final-day hopes – but taking into context a rollercoaster season, and how the goalposts moved dramatically, it is a notable effort.
It is not lost on Carlos Corberan where the club was slumped when he adopted it.
The head coach must have wondered what he had let himself in for after defeat against Sheffield United first up left Albion rock-bottom of the Championship. It was so bad some supporters were consigned to League One.
The context had shifted considerably by January. Corberan had remarkably led his troops into the play-off places much earlier than hoped. Hope and expectation changed accordingly. From then it has been a cocktail of highs and lows, setbacks and comebacks, season-ending injuries and barren away form.
Hope looked to be fully dashed around Easter after two measly performances against lowly opposition in the double-header where Corberan, for the first time, called out his players’ effort and fight.
Albion, though, have since managed to banish their hoodoo away from The Hawthorns and despite successive defeats to play-off rivals Sunderland and promotion-winning Sheffield United, a gusty turnaround victory against Norwich City – a club with arguably greater pre-season ambitions than Albion – has taken the Baggies’ push right to the wire.
