Russell Martin is under pressure to deliver promotion at Southampton this season and faces a potentially pivotal match in Friday’s second leg of this Championship play-off.
Martin’s position as manager will be plunged into doubt if he fails to guide the club back
With promotion said to be worth £170-200 million, the stakes are so high that tension reigns supreme in the shoot-out to reach a Wembley final.
Southampton coasted to a 25-match unbeaten run midway through the campaign but are now having to rely on this unforgiving route to promotion.
Martin expects to have Che Adams back for the second leg, after the 16-goal forward was absent for this match through injury, and is backing his players to deliver at St Mary’s.
Relegated from the Premier League in 2021, Albion have endured a roller-coaster season and head coach Carlos Corberan deserves huge credit for keeping his team competitive.
Until late February, there were genuine fears that West Brom could be facing a bleak future until the takeover by Shilen Patel, who was at the Hawthorns on Sunday.
Though West Brom lost both league games and finished 12 points below Southampton, Corberan already has experience of the play-offs after taking Huddersfield Town to the 2022 final.
“We have a wonderful opportunity to get into the best league in the world and there are four teams all hoping to do it,” he said. “This was the best atmosphere I have ever experienced and we know there will be 100,000 fans wanting us to win on Friday night.
“To have the chance to reach a Wembley final is so exciting and the second leg will be very demanding for all of us.”
“For us to avoid any real damage before the home leg was important and there are a lot of things we can do better on Friday,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s advantage Southampton but we definitely have another gear or two to click through.
“We miss Che a lot as he’s been probably one of our best players over the last four to five weeks, we hoped he would be ready for this one.”
In an extremely tight game of few opportunities, played in hot conditions, both goalkeepers proved the key players.
West Brom’s Alex Palmer won the Golden Glove award this season and produced an outstanding save 11 minutes from the end, pushing away substitute Ross Stewart’s deflected shot.
Alex McCarthy, of Southampton, saved twice from Grady Diangana to leave the semi-final finely balanced ahead of Friday’s rematch.
