Following a rare defeat in the Black Country earlier in the week, West Bromwich Albion will look to respond as Millwall arrive at The Hawthorns for a Championship clash on Saturday afternoon.
The Baggies were narrowly defeated by Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, whilst the Lions produced a below-par performance in South Wales, losing to basement dwellers Cardiff City.
Match preview
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Enjoying a six-game unbeaten run at the start of the 2024-25 Championship season, West Brom have been brought back down to Earth over the past week in the second tier, enduring back-to-back defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough, consequently losing ground in the race for automatic promotion.
The Baggies had not conceded at the Hawthorns this season before Tuesday night's visit of Michael Carrick's Boro, who managed to escape back up to the North-East with maximum points courtesy of a long-range curler in the second period from England Under-21 international Hayden Hackney.
Failing to collect any points from their last two Championship matches, West Brom have dropped from first to fourth place in the early rankings as the October international break approaches, sitting one point behind second-placed Burnley and two points back from division-leading Sunderland.
Despite struggling over the past week as a team, Albion still possess some of the Championship's best-performing players this season, as Josh Maja and Tom Fellows have provided 13 goal contributions combined so far in 2024-25, with the pair set to give Millwall's defence plenty of problems on Saturday.
Representative of their strength at The Hawthorns under the leadership of Carlos Corberan, West Brom have not lost back-to-back Championship home matches since the arrival of the highly-rated Spanish head coach in October 2022, meaning that those of an Albion persuasion will be confident of a response from their team this weekend.
![Millwall manager Neil Harris pictured in April 2024 [IMAGO]](https://sm.imgix.net/24/25/neil-harris.jpg?w=640&h=480&auto=compress,format&fit=clip "Millwall manager Neil Harris pictured in April 2024 [IMAGO]")
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After building momentum with the collection of four points from two matches against Queens Park Rangers and Preston North End, Millwall suffered their worst result of the 2024-25 schedule to date on Tuesday night, when the London-based side were put to the sword by Cardiff in South Wales.
Despite having more of the ball and creating the lion's share of the clear-cut chances, the visitors at the Cardiff City Stadium failed to breach the net of Bluebirds keeper Jak Alnwick, with a first-half header from right-back Perry Ng securing Cardiff's maiden win of the league term.
Winning just one of their last four Championship contests, Millwall are languishing down in 16th place ahead of Saturday afternoon's trip to the Black Country, already seven points behind sixth-placed Blackburn Rovers and only a single point ahead of QPR in the relegation zone.
In the midst of his side's varying performances and results, former Sunderland youngster Duncan Watmore has been consistently reliable at the top end of the pitch, with the winger netting five goals so far this season despite only scoring on four occasions across the entirety of the 2023-24 term.
Rather surprisingly, Millwall have not tasted defeat against West Brom since the West Midlands outfit returned to the Championship following Premier League relegation in 2021, with the Lions having the opportunity to extend their unbeaten run in this fixture to seven matches on the weekend.
Team News
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Despite their defensive frailties in recent matches, West Brom should stick with a trusted centre-back pairing of Semi Ajayi and Kyle Bartley.
Jed Wallace started the defeat to Middlesbrough but is highly likely to drop out of the XI this weekend to make room for the return of playmaker Fellows.
Whilst Maja holds down the goalscoring fort up front, Daryl Dike continues to recover from an Achilles tendon injury sustained in February.
Serving the second match of his three-game ban for a red card during the win over Preston, Millwall's Aidomo Emakhu will be unavailable for his side's trip to The Hawthorns.
The Lions remain without the services of Boro loanee Josh Coburn, who picked up a leg injury in the 1-0 win over Luton Town in the middle of September.
West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:
Palmer; Furlong, Ajayi, Bartley, Heggem; Mowatt, Molumby; Fellows, Swift, Johnston; Maja
Millwall possible starting lineup:
Jensen; McNamara, Tanganga, Cooper, Bryan; De Norre, Saville; Azeez, Leonard, Watmore; Langstaff
We say: West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Millwall
After a rare home defeat to Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, West Brom should be significantly stronger this weekend with the likes of Mikey Johnston, Fellows and Jayson Molumby potentially entering the starting XI.
Millwall have little options to freshen up their attacking ranks after drawing a blank at Cardiff last time out, so we are anticipating another difficult outing for the Lions.
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Carter White
