Albion’s Second Tier Season Comparison – 43 games | OneFootball

James Morrison’s Baggies extended their unbeaten run to eight games with an excellent victory at Deepdale on Saturday that moved Albion five points clear of the bottom three with just three games left. A first half goal from John Maja and a first goal of the campaign from Daryl Dike after the break secured the 2-0 win which also made it five clean sheets in six games for Albion.

The deserved three points means that the Baggies are on 49 points, which has been enough to finish above the bottom three in 15 of the last 20 Championship seasons. The average points tally needed over that period is 46, with the lowest being 38 (in 2022) and the highest 55 (in 2013).

This season, of course, is complicated by the potential for a points deduction which is now having a significant impact on the sporting integrity of the competition. As things stand, Leicester City need to win their remaining three matches to have any chance of staying up, while Oxford United need at least six points to overhaul the Baggies or Blackburn Rovers. A win for Mozza’s men over Watford on Tuesday would more than likely be enough to secure their Championship survival, except it might not. It’s a ridiculous situation.

All the team can do is to continue to fight for every point and, judging on the performance at Deepdale on Saturday, that is exactly what they are doing. It would have been difficult to have hand-picked a better club to play next than Tuesday’s opponents, Watford – they have nothing to play for, haven’t won any of their last five and have lost their last three on the road. Of the eighteen games in all competitions they have played since New Year’s Day, the Hornets have won just three.

Of course, it’s unlikely to be that straightforward, but Morrison and the team will go into the game full of confidence and ready to put the spectre of relegation to bed, or at least as much as they can with the EFL’s Sword of Damocles hanging over them.

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