West Brom boss Carlos Corberan determined to conquer tough new challenge

Last Sunday's play-off semi-final first leg stalemate with Southampton was the Baggies' 50th game of a draining campaign and the 51st at St Mary's on Friday will provide a chance for one more at Wembley.

Temperatures soared over the weekend but have since eased and head coach Corberan admitted all factors played a part in some of his "fatigued" players requesting to come off early.

Southampton boss Russell Martin also admitted his Saints struggled with conditions at a demanding stage of the campaign. He said the conditions at The Hawthorns made for a drying playing surface. Corberan joked "I'm Spanish" when asked about warm temperatures.

"I think many players were affected with the weather conditions, (Conor) Townsend asked for a change before finishing the game.

"Okay (Yokuslu) asked for the change, (Kyle) Bartley felt fatigue, (Mikey) Johnston felt fatigue, after you have played 46 league games, after cup games, and you are in May it is normal your legs are not going to be as fresh as you can have in September, when you have international breaks and you can recover and things like this.

"The Championship is a tremendously demanding league, the Christmas period was unbelievable, the fact we kept going in the (FA) Cup to late January, I think, was a very demanding month too. You arrive to May and have different strengths."

The Baggies were beaten in the first round of the EFL Cup at Stoke in August and prevailed through one FA Cup tie, against non-league Aldershot, prior to the Black Country Derby defeat.

Albion have an extra day's preparation for the second leg than play-off rivals Leeds and Norwich, who also contested a goalless first leg on Sunday but play their second leg at Elland Road tomorrow (Thursday) night.

Corberan revealed after the first leg that striker Josh Maja, who has battled back from two ankle injuries this term, was not physically ready to be in the matchday squad. It remains to be seen if he will be selected among the substitute on Friday.

The Albion boss, meanwhile, feels his players will need to use the goodwill of their absent home support to spur them on at St Mary's on Friday.

"More open? I don't know, because what happens in games changes the type of game that you play," the head coach said.

"We will face, I don't know how many people can be in that stadium – 30 or 35 thousands – we are not going to have our 30,000 people there, we will miss them a lot, one hundred per cent we will miss them.

"But we will have them in our hearts and we need to take them inside of us because it's going to be a very demanding game, one hundred per cent."