James Collins’ development side earned their first win in five matches last time out, as they produced arguably their best display of their Premier League 2 Division 2 campaign so far, to get their play-off push back on track with just four matches of the season remaining.
The side moved back up to third in the table thanks to a 4-0 win over the Magpies at Aggborough, with Austin Samuels brace setting Wolves on their way to victory before Theo Corbeanu and Owen Hesketh put the result beyond doubt.
Despite being bottom of the standings going into the weekend, the Baggies come into the game off the back of their first win in four, claiming a 3-2 victory on the road at Sunderland last Monday, closing their gap to Newcastle to just one point, with a game in hand over the team from the north east.
Wolves will hope to repeat their performance in the reverse fixture, where despite going behind twice, two second-half goals from Corbeanu saw Collins’ young side take a 4-2 win and all three points back across the Black Country divide.
With the game to be played behind closed doors, supporters can still catch all the action live from Kidderminster on Wolves TV.
The match will be streamed online from 12pm, with the full match stream and commentary available to watch on wolves.co.uk, the Wolves App or the Wolves YouTube channel.
The live Wolves TV match stream can be found here, or click here to watch on YouTube, while supporters can also catch download the Wolves App now on iOS here and on Android here.
WHEN
Monday, 12pm
WHERE
Aggborough Stadium, Kidderminster
LAST THREE
Wolves
4-0 vs Newcastle United (H)
0-4 vs Aston Villa (A)
1-1 vs Middlesbrough (A)
West Brom
3-2 vs Sunderland (A)
1-2 vs Crystal Palace (H)
0-5 vs Leeds United (H)
WHAT THE BOSS THINKS
With just four matches in their Premier League 2 season remaining, head coach Collins admits his team would be ‘naïve’ not to push as hard as they can to secure a place in the Division 2 play-offs, despite his priority being focused on the development of his players.
“We haven’t had many games this year because of Covid, we haven’t had cup competitions, so the extension of a season with semi-finals and finals is a real plus; a chance to get two extra games at the end of the season.
“Whatever competition you’re in, you want to win, and you want to do well in. For me, development comes first, but when you get to four games to go and you’re in with a chance of it, you obviously want that challenge because when you go off to league football, it’s about winning, so we’d be naïve not to make that a priority at this stage of the season.
“Having said that, number one for me is always about producing good players and development, but if we can get that balance right, we’re onto something.”
REMAINING FIXTURES
19/04 West Bromwich Albion (H)
26/04 Norwich City (H)
30/04 Reading (A)
10/05 Reading (H)
