West Brom suffered their fifth-straight away loss across all competitions on Friday night when they were defeated 2-0 at the MKM Stadium by Liam Rosenior’s Tigers, with Benjamin Tetteh’s first of the season and a Dara O’Shea own goal condemning Albion to a disappointing loss.
The visiting Baggies had the lion’s share of the possession and chances on goal in Hull but were unable to breach Karl Darlow’s net, with the 32-year-old earning himself the Man of the Match award as he kept Carlos Corberan’s men at bay.
For large periods of the encounter in Yorkshire, Albion played some neat football, but that loss means that they are now 11th in the league standings and seven points behind sixth-placed Norwich City – albeit West Brom have played a game fewer than the Canaries.
Corberan will be happy his side are back at The Hawthorns on Tuesday night – Albion are unbeaten in their last 10 matches in the Black Country which includes the 2-0 success over promoting-chasing Middlesbrough just over a week ago.
With injuries beginning to diminish Corberan’s options in attacking areas, West Brom know an upcoming trio of fixtures against Wigan, Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town need to return plenty of points if they are to keep pace with the top six.
Wigan head to The Hawthorns on Tuesday night off the back of a respectable point at home to John Eustace’s struggling Birmingham side, with an Ashley Fletcher strike in the second half cancelling out Juninho Bacuna’s delightful free-kick in the first period.
That point – combined with Huddersfield’s 4-0 loss at home to Coventry City on the weekend – has moved the Latics off the bottom of the Championship table and into 23rd place, but more worryingly is the fact that safety is now six points away following Cardiff’s success in the Severnside derby against Bristol City.
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The Lancashire-based club have picked up points in five of the six games new manager Shaun Maloney has overseen since replacing Kolo Tourein February, although only one of those clashes has produced maximum points, leaving Wigan with plenty to do to avoid an immediate return to League One.
Wigan are one of the rare cases of a side faring better on their travels than in front of their home support, with 18 of the Latics’ 32 Championship points coming away from the DW Stadium so far this season – despite that a victory at West Brom on Tuesday will be far from expected.
Maloney has claimed that belief in his squad is still high despite being unable to earn maximum points from their encounter with an out-of-form Birmingham team on Saturday, and the Latics will need all of that confidence to get anything out of their game at The Hawthorns in this one.
