Stoke City vs West Bromwich Albion. Sky Bet Championship.
Bet365 StadiumAttendance22,360.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm on Monday night; Kick-off is at 7.45pm.
Monday 4 November 2019 20:13, UK
Stoke face West Brom in the Sky Bet Championship on Monday, live on Sky Sports Football.
Rory Delap, Kevin Russell and Andy Quy are set to be in charge of the Stoke. The trio have been put in charge of first-team affairs following the sacking of Nathan Jones on Friday.
They will have to check on the fitness of Peter Etebo and Tom Edwards. Midfielder Etebo has been struggling with a groin problem while defender Edwards has a side strain. Centre-back Ryan Shawcross continues his long-term recovery from a serious ankle injury.
West Brom will be without teenage defender Nathan Ferguson after his straight red card last weekend. The 19-year-old was sent off for a lunge on Charlton's Chris Solly midway through the second half of Albion's 2-2 draw and he must serve a three-match ban.
Conor Townsend is expected to replace Ferguson at left-back at the bet365 Stadium. Slaven Bilic's side head into the weekend top of the Championship table but could be as low as fourth in the standings by the time they play.
Any hopes of a Stoke resurgence have been quelled by back-to-back defeats on the road at Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall - without a goal scored in either.
West Brom's charge towards promotion has been halted by back-to-back draws at home. The first of which saw them claw back a two-goal deficit against Barnsley, the second saw them lose a late lead against Charlton. Both finished 2-2.
Stoke have won only one of their last nine league games against West Brom (W1 D2 L6), a 3-1 victory in December 2017.
West Brom are looking to win consecutive away league matches against Stoke for the first time since April 1931.
Since Nathan Jones' first Championship game in charge on January 12th, Stoke City have won fewer points than any other side to have competed in the division in both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons (28 points).
Excluding play-offs, West Brom have scored 113 Championship goals since August 2018, 19 more than any other team.
Stoke have scored just six goals in open play in the Championship this season - only Wigan have scored fewer (5).
Matheus Pereira has been involved in eight goals in nine Championship starts for West Brom (3 goals, 5 assists).
Stoke's owners showed a huge amount of patience with Nathan Jones, but any hopes of a resurgence after a couple of wins was quickly quelled by back-to-back defeats, and it seemed inevitable that he would be shown the door sooner or later.
West Brom's surge has just hit the buffers in the last couple of games as they have been held to draws against sides they really should have beaten at home. But the quality they have should see them past Stoke.
David Prutton predicts: 1-2 (17/2 with Sky Bet)
