WEST BROMWICH ALBION v SUNDERLAND
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 23rd February 2013, 3:00pm
The Hawthorns

MATCH NOTES

Albion have won more points (21), and have won more games (6), against Sunderland than any other club in Premier League competition.

The Baggies have not won at home since beating Norwich City on December 22.

The last time Albion played a game on this date was in 2008 when they lost a League Championship game 2-1 at home to Hull City. The last Baggies' victory on February 23 came 11 years ago when they beat Portsmouth 5-0 at The Hawthorns.

Baggies’ striker Peter Odemwingie has netted four goals in five games against Sunderland.

The last time Albion kept consecutive clean sheets was in April 2012, and it came after a win against Liverpool at Anfield.

Jerome Thomas will make his 100th Albion appearance if he figures in the game.

Seven of the last eight league meetings between the sides have produced a minimum of three goals.

Albion's last six games: Liverpool (A) 1-0; Tottenham Hotspur (H) 0-1; Everton (A) 1-2; Aston Villa (H) 2-2; QPR (H FAC) 0-1; Reading (A) 2-3

Sunderland's last six games: Arsenal (H) 0-1; Reading (A) 1-2; Swansea City (H) 0-0; Wigan Athletic (A) 3-2; Bolton Wanderers (H FAC) 0-2; West Ham United (H) 3-0

TEAM NEWS

Albion

Steve Clarke has no fresh injury worries although defender Goran Popov will serve the second game of a three-match ban for his red card against Tottenham Hotspur.

Zoltan Gera and George Thorne are both out with long-term injuries.

The Baggies’ boss also has to decide whether to include Peter Odemwingie for the first time since his dispute with the club in January.

Squad from: Foster, Myhill, Daniels, Reid, Jones, Olsson, McAuley, Tamas, Ridgewell, Dorrans, Mulumbu, Yacob, Brunt, Morrison, Thomas, Long, Lukaku, Fortune, Odemwingie, Rosenberg.

Sunderland

Defender Danny Rose will miss out with the hamstring injury he aggravated against Arsenal while midfielder Lee Cattermole is a doubt after only recently returning from his knee injury.

Martin O’Neill could hand recent signing Danny Graham his first start since joining from Swansea City.

Squad from: Mignolet, Westwood, Bardsley, O'Shea, Kilgallon, Bramble, Cuellar, Mangane, N'Diaye, Gardner, Colback, McClean, Larsson, Johnson, Vaughan, Sessegnon, Fletcher, Graham, Cattermole.

QUOTES

Baggies' boss Steve Clarke:

"It’s certainly time to win at home - it’s been too long. We had a great start to the season at home and The Hawthorns was a really difficult place for teams to come. It’s still a difficult place for teams to come but we haven’t been getting the results or the wins. And I think we owe it to the fans to put on a good show and get three more points on the board."

“There is obviously a temptation to leave things as they are after such a good result. But there is obviously the fact we’re playing at home and maybe we can look to be a bit more adventurous than how we started the game at Anfield. I’ve got different options that I’m thinking about and we’ve worked on a couple of different things in training this week. I’ll need to sleep on it overnight and then wake up in the morning and decide the best way to go.

“Some teams like to go away as a group and some managers like to take their players away to the warm weather. Rather than doing that we gave our players the option to stay with their families in the UK or they had enough time to go away and catch some sunshine if they wanted to. We did it a slightly different way but I’m sure the end result will be the same - and that’s a fresh group of players. Hopefully you’ll see two fresh teams on Saturday and a good, exciting game.”

www.wba.co.uk

Black Cats' manager Martin O'Neill:

“It’s still a tight league table, apart from Manchester United who have opened up a big gap at the top.

“At this minute it’s not our position that matters so much, it’s the number of points on the board. I’d like to get past that 30 mark as soon as possible and get back to winning ways.

“After back to back victories I while ago I thought we stuttered against Swansea when we had the chance to make it three on the trot. It was a late defeat against Reading and then a very close game with Arsenal. Now we start the final run-in.

“We were disappointed to lose the game against Reading at the end. We had chances to win it before Reading scored the goal. Those are the fine margins which are the difference between putting extra points on the board and looking over your shoulder. The sooner we get those extra points, the sooner we can breathe a bit easier.”

www.safc.com

MATCH ODDS

Result

Albion Win: 11/10, Sunderland Win: 5/2, Draw: 23/10.

First Goalscorer

Lukaku 9/2, Long 5/1, Fletcher 6/1, Fortune 8/1, Morrison 8/1, Odemwingie 8/1, Rosenberg 8/1, Graham 8/1, Sessegnon 8/1, Johnson 10/1, Brunt 14/1, Dorrans 14/1, Larsson 14/1, McClean 14/1, Thomas 16/1, Gardner 16/1, Ndiaye 22/1.

REFEREE

Roger East (Wiltshire)

Has refereed one Albion game so far this season, the 3-0 defeat at Fulham in September, a game that saw the Wiltshire official send Albion striker Peter Odemwingie off.

Prior to the game at Craven Cottage, East last took charge of an Albion match in the Carling Cup tie away at Bournemouth in August 2011, a game which ended in a 4-1 victory for Roy Hodgson's men.

East has refereed one Sunderland game this season, the 2-2 draw at Swansea City in September.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for the game will remain on general sale to home fans only until kick-off.

WEATHER FORECAST

Cloudy but dry, 2°C.

FIXTURE HISTORY

Albion have a good record against Sunderland in the Premier League, losing just two of the eleven meetings between the two sides. The Baggies are also unbeaten in the last six games, winning five and drawing one.

LAST LEAGUE MEETING AT THE HAWTHORNS

Albion 4-0 Sunderland
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 25 February 2012, 3:00pm

Albion: Foster, Reid, McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell, Andrews, Mulumbu (Shorey 77), Morrison, Odemwingie (Long 81), Fortune, Thomas (Dorrans 64). Subs not used: Fulop, Tchoyi, Dawson, Cox.

Goalscorers: Odemwingie 3, Morrison 41, Odemwingie 48, Andrews 90.

Booked: Dorrans 74 (foul)

Sunderland: Mignolet, Bardsley, Turner, O'Shea, Richardson (Bendtner 46), Larsson (Bridge 59), Cattermole, Gardner, Colback (Campbell 46), McClean, Sessegnon. Subs not used: Westwood, Kilgallon, Meyler, Kyrgiakos.

Booked: O'Shea 73 (foul)

Attendance: 25,311

Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)

Peter Odemwingie's double helped West Brom clinch their first home win in three months as they overpowered below-par Sunderland in a Barclays Premier League clash at the Hawthorns. Odemwingie followed up his hat-trick against Wolves with another impressive performance with James Morrison and Keith Andrews the other Baggies marksmen. Roy Hodgson's side, who had collected only one point from their previous six home games, dominated against the previously on-song Black Cats.

Odemwingie looks full of confidence, in contrast to the injury-hit player who has struggled for much of the campaign, despite playing in a wide role. Central striker Marc-Antoine Fortune was also a key player with his hold-up play while Morrison had another effective game in midfield. But Albion controlled all departments and snapped away at the challenges in midfield, not allowing Martin O'Neill's side to settle. O'Neill, who is 60 on Thursday, will hope this is a one-off performance after transforming Sunderland's fortunes and only Craig Gardner posed any sort of goal threat.

Odemwingie needed only three minutes to break the deadlock. Youssouf Mulumbu supplied a teasing cross from the left of the Sunderland box and Odemwingie got in front of Kieran Richardson to send his glancing header past Simon Mignolet. It was the Nigerian international's nine goal of the campaign. Albion dominated possession and midfielder Andrews tested Mignolet with a dipping drive. It was 26 minutes before the visitors had their first shot on goal and then Gardner dragged his low drive well wide. Albion continued to play with purpose and Mignolet turned aside a Jonas Olsson header from a Steven Reid free-kick. Then Mignolet parried a curling Morrison attempt after a period of neat one-touch football. But Albion's perseverance paid off with Morrison doubling their lead after 41 minutes. The Scotland international was perfectly placed to head home a fine cross from Jerome Thomas from close range with the Sunderland defence at sixes and sevens.

O'Neill made a double half-time switch with new England recruit Fraizer Campbell and fellow striker Nicklas Bendtner, who was playing with a face mask, replacing Kieran Richardson and Jack Colback. The Black Cats were now playing three up front and Albion keeper Ben Foster clung onto a low drive from Gardner. But their bold policy left them prone to being caught on the counter-attack and after 49 minutes Odemwingie put Albion 3-0 ahead. Foster's quick throw out to Morrison left Albion in a two versus two attacking position and they took full advantage. Morrison picked out the run of Fortune who squared the ball across the box to Odemwingie who made no mistake with a low drive. Thomas came close to making it 4-0 when he cut inside and saw his curling attempt hit the crossbar. Gardner was the only player posing a threat for Sunderland and a swerving shot hit the body of Foster. Albion continued to look more menacing and Michael Turner cleared a goal-bound shot from Fortune. Reid then produced a superb block tackle to halt Stephane Sessegnon as he prepared to shoot inside the West Brom box. John O'Shea became the first player to be yellow carded for a challenge on Morrison. Graham Dorrans was also booked a minute later for a mis-timed tackle on Phil Bardsley. Andrews made it 4-0 in injury-time with a curling shot after good play between Morrison and Dorrans teed up the chance.

Sporting Life

CURRENT CONNECTIONS

In his playing career, Sunderland's first team coach Steve Walford spent a short spell on loan at The Hawthorns during the 1988/89 season.

PAST CONNECTIONS

Amongst the players to have turned out at various levels for both clubs are: Sam Allardyce, Mark Angel, Brett Angell, Peter Barnes, Jack Boyd, Darren Carter, Frank Cresswell, Shaun Cunnington, Danny Dichio, Andy Dibble, Tony Ford, Carsten Fredgaard, Marton Fulop, Sid Glidden, Don Goodman, Bernt Haas, Danny Hegan, Jim Holton, Kevin Kilbane, Archie McKenzie, Sandy McNab, Paul McShane, Andy Marriott, Jimmy Millar, Joe Murphy, John Nevin, Jimmy Nicholl, Kevin Phillips, Kieran Richardson, Barry Siddall, Colin Suggett, Stanislav Varga, Ike Webb and Colin West.

ALL-TIME LEAGUE & CUP RECORD VS SUNDERLAND