Baggies look to stop the rot on the road

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·19 de dezembro de 2025

Baggies look to stop the rot on the road

Hull City v West Bromwich Albion; MKM Stadium, Saturday 20th December 2025, 3pm

Seven successive away defeats is a big reason why Albion are currently languishing in the bottom half of the table. Even the run of one win in twenty away games to finish last season garnered eleven points, but Mason’s Baggies are yet to pick up a draw on the road with their only points away from the Hawthorns coming from three wins in the first four games. If they are to start rising the table, that needs to change.

Saturday’s opponents, Hull City, currently sit in sixth place some six points ahead of Albion which adds a little added significance to the match. Some comfort has been drawn in that the Baggies have remained within striking distance of the top six in terms of points up to now – defeat to the Tigers would most likely see that gap get wider.

Vídeos OneFootball

Most were surprised at the end of last season when the Hull City hierarchy decided to sack head coach Rubén Sellés despite him being successful in keeping the Tigers in the Championship, but Bosnian Sergej Jakirović looks to have been an astute replacement as he has kept the team around the play-off places despite the club being subject to a transfer embargo. Although the team are currently in the top six, it has been something of a feast-or-famine season with some good wins but also some heavy defeats – since the end of September, City have won eight, lost four and drawn just one, with their last two defeats coming at home to Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town. Consistency has been hard to come by.

Joe Gelhardt and Oli McBurnie have been impressive up front with eighteen goals between them, half of City’s 36 so far this season, while Ryan Giles has been creator-in-chief with eight assists. There is plenty of experience in the back line with the likes of Lewie Coyle, John Egan and, of course, former Baggie Semi Ajayi, but only bottom of the table Sheffield Wednesday have conceded more than the Tigers’ 35 goals against in the Championship this season.

For Albion, it is yet another opportunity to build some sort of momentum after an excellent victory over an admittedly under-par Sheffield United side last Friday. When you consider that the defeat on penalties to Derby County came between the Baggies’ two opening league victories of the campaign, they haven’t won consecutive games this season and, indeed, last did so in September 2024 unless you count the last game of the last campaign and the first of the current one.

In his pre-match comments, Ryan Mason has correctly identified that individual mistakes have cost Albion in recent away games, and those need to be cut out if the Baggies are to move up the table. Of course, fear of mistakes can lead to a more conservative approach to the game, for individuals at least, and that is also something that will hold them back. The times when Albion have looked good this season have been when employing a high-press front-footed approach to put opponents under pressure – Mason needs to somehow help his players to cut out the errors while encouraging the bravery and confidence that will see them play at their best.

Alex Mowatt and Tammer Bany remain doubts for the match, although both were expected to train on Friday, but with more than a week since the last match, the players who beat the Blades should be raring to go once again. Furthermore, two home games either side of next weekend will at least cut down on travelling so, perhaps, the fixture computer has been somewhat kind to Albion for once.

Heggebø, Grant and Johnston have been the most impressive players in recent weeks and, if they can continue that form, they will give any Championship side problems. Consistency has, of course, been an issue all season but those three seem to have found a degree of it of late. Heggebø has seven goals in his last seven games while Grant has scored in his last two games in what were undoubtedly his two best performances for some time. Johnston, meanwhile, has been Albion’s most consistent performer all season, and Mason would be severely questioned if those three did not start at Hull.

In fact, the side that started against the Blades last week should start once again, assuming Mowatt is not fit to start. Bielik seems to have wrestled a starting spot from Mepham, with perhaps one possible change being to move the Pole into midfield in place of Diakité, while George Campbell has put in some decent displays in recent weeks, bar his error at QPR. Perhaps a first-choice eleven is starting to emerge, although we can expect changes over the holiday period as the games come thick and fast.

The Baggies have a good record against Hull City having won eight of the last eleven meetings with just one defeat – let’s hope that they can continue this and perhaps give the season the kick start it desperately needs.

History

Given Albion’s current run of form away from home, it is notable that it was a visit to the MKM Stadium last season that stood apart as their only victory on the road last season after September. Indeed, the Tigers’ home since December 2002 has been a relatively happy hunting ground for the Baggies – City have won just three of the twelve meetings between the sides at the stadium with the visitors victorious on five occasions.

Albion’s biggest win at what was then called the KC Stadium was in January 2008 when Tony Mowbray’s team visited East Yorkshire whilst top of the Championship table. They were two games without a win having been beaten at Ipswich Town on New Year’s Day before drawing away to Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup the week before.

It didn’t take Mowbray’s men long to take the lead – Ishmael Miller’s reverse pass put Chris Brunt free down the left wing and his pin-point cross was guided home by the division’s top scorer, Kevin Phillips, in just the second minute of the match. Half an hour later, Phillips turned provider as his ball found James Morrison advancing on future Baggie, Boaz Myhill, in the Hull goal and Mozza slid the ball coolly into the corner of the net for a two goal lead.

Some good work from Dean Kiely kept the hosts out in the first half but he could do nothing to prevent Richard Garcia’s perfectly placed shot from reducing the arrears with less than twenty minutes to go. A few minutes later, it got worse as Paul Robinson picked up his second yellow card, a harsh decision given that he actually got to the ball first. It left Albion trying to hang on with ten men for the final fifteen minutes but they managed it comfortably and substitute Román Bednar made sure of the points in stoppage time with a fierce shot on the break that Myhill couldn’t keep out. The final score was 3-1 and the Baggies would go on to win the league. Meanwhile, Charlton were despatched on penalties in the cup replay the following mid-week to kick off an exciting cup run that would take Albion all the way to Wembley.