Preview: Coventry City vs. West Bromwich Albion - prediction, team news, lineups

At a time when the Sky Blues remain bottom of the standings, West Brom are in 16th position despite prevailing in just one of their eight fixtures.

Match preview

There will be a sense of relief behind the scenes at Coventry that the club have been able to resume their schedule at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

However, after the unwanted distraction of an unplayable pitch, the focus must now be on trying to end a run of four successive defeats in the second tier, a run which leaves them seven points adrift of safety.

Although Mark Robins's team have three matches in hand on many of the teams above them, Coventry must simply focus on one game at a time in a bid to avoid feeling detached at the bottom of the table.

The fixtures have not necessarily been kind to Coventry, their latest defeat coming at the hands of promotion favourites Norwich City.

Nevertheless, they are still without a clean sheet this season, something which will eventually need to change if they are to make some much-needed progress.

From West Brom's perspective, collecting just nine points from eight matches is far from ideal as Steve Bruce looks to keep the club in the playoff hunt.

However, five of their six draws have come from losing positions, a sign that a squad which has been limited by injuries and transfer mishaps are performing for their manager.

While the West Midlands outfit sit just one point above the bottom three, they will be relatively content that they are just four points adrift of the top six.

Like their hosts, clean sheets have been few and far between this campaign, their only shutout in the league coming at home to Cardiff City.

Coventry City Championship form:

Coventry City form (all competitions):

West Bromwich Albion Championship form:

West Bromwich Albion form (all competitions):

Team News

Robins is expected to make changes to his Coventry XI with Viktor Gyokeres one of the players who should be recalled to the team.

Jonathan Panzo is in line to feature on the left-hand side of the back three, while Kasey Palmer may drop deeper to replace Jamie Allen.

Given the club's lack of strength in depth and current injury issues, Bruce may be prepared to stick with the West Brom XI from the Burnley game.

Jake Livermore is most likely to earn a recall in place of Jayson Molumby in midfield, with Brandon Thomas-Asante probably remaining on the substitutes' bench despite his debut goal.

Taylor Gardner-Hickman is again expected to get the nod at right-back ahead of Darnell Furlong.

Coventry City possible starting lineup:

Wilson; Rose, McFadzean, Panzo; Dabo, Sheaf, Hamer, Palmer, Bidwell; Walker, Gyokeres

West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:

Button; Gardner-Hickman, Bartley, O'Shea, Townsend; Livermore, Yokuslu; Wallace, Swift, Diangana; Grant

We say: Coventry City 1-2 West Bromwich Albion

Robins would have hoped by now that his Coventry side were getting back up to speed, but he will remain unconvinced. Even though West Brom have struggled to get wins on the board, we are backing the Baggies to edge this contest by the odd goal in three.

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