When West Bromwich Albion and Carlos Corberan return to action this weekend, their only goal is to accumulate enough points to guarantee their play-off spot throughout the final eight league games. Albion, who have only lost one of their previous 10 games, are currently in fifth place with 66 points. They have also started to pull away from the rest of the pack.
Naturally, they still have work to do, and that starts on Good Friday when they go to Millwall for a lunchtime encounter with a team that hasn’t quite recovered from the threat of relegation. The goal is straightforward: to continually rack up points and frustrate those teams chasing the Baggies, such as Coventry City, Hull City, and Norwich City, in their attempts to shut them down.
“I think it’s our responsibility to focus on ourselves and not give the other teams any attention,” captain Jed Wallace remarked. “For me, you just want to keep upsetting the other teams, where they come in and they go ‘ugh – they’ve won again.” Before the game, the management brought that up a lot.
“He posted an image showing how far we’ve gone this season to get 63 points [before to Bristol City’s victory], and how this is a crucial period where we must focus on both ourselves and our goal. He’s right; we have a fixed goal in mind. We know how many points we need to reach, so we just focus on getting there and worry about the rest later.
“There’s still a ton of football still to play; the Championship is crazy and strange. You may say we’re playing well, but this league allows teams to lose three straight games. We simply concentrate on the next game; Easter weekend is always exciting.”
Wallace’s journey to London this Friday holds special meaning for him personally. The winger-turned-center-forward, who turned 30 this week, played for Millwall for five years, following two loan stints at the New Den while he was a member of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wallace has already visited the Lions’ stadium as an Albion player, so it won’t be a completely new experience for him. Still, he plans to make sure his infant son is wearing appropriate noise-canceling headgear because he anticipates a heated reception!
He went on, “It’s actually my baby’s birthday! I told my wife to bring an extra set of headphones because I don’t believe he needs to hear lots of people from the neighborhood talking nice things about his dad on his first birthday! He probably won’t want to hear that!
“No, I’m excited about it. I’m looking forward to it; it’s a big game for both teams, and I know there will be a fantastic atmosphere. Neil Harris is there right now, and I adore him. He’s one of the best gentlemen I’ve ever met in football.”
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