Last weekend saw a rare week off for the Albion players, due to our lack of involvement in the FA Cup after being knocked out of the competition by Norwich City.
In a way, not having a game has enabled us to bask in the glory of our sensational derby victory for an extra week than would normally be the case, which certainly cannot be a bad thing!
The only Albion-related news over the past few days has been that George Thorne has re-joined Portsmouth on loan, and Saido Berahino scored two excellent goals in front of the Sky Sports cameras for Brentford against Carlisle United on Monday night.
Thorne and Berahino are widely regarded as two of our best young players, so to see them playing regular football at a high standard is very encouraging.
Black cats
This weekend sees us take on Sunderland at The Hawthorns, with the visitors coming into the game with the same confidence as we should be.
Their revival under Martin O’Neill has been incredible, as they have found their way into the comfort of mid-table after looking as though they would have to fight relegation under Steve Bruce.
When you combine this with our appalling home form this season, it is easy to see why this is going to be such a difficult game for us.
The latest injury news is that Paul Scharner may well struggle to be fit for the game on Saturday, although with Keith Andrews waiting in the wings following his debut goal at Molineux, we should be able to get by reasonably well without him.
On the plus side, Shane Long is back to full fitness and Chris Brunt may return to training as early as the end of this week.
This will undoubtedly be a tough game, but our home form has got to change at some point and the players should be full of confidence after our previous result.
If we use our performance at Molineux as the benchmark for Saturday and the remainder of the season, hopefully we can put in some good performance and pick up a few more positive results!
Boing Boing!
Do you think Albion can kick on from their win at Wo1ve5? Have your say at WBA-MAD's Fans' forum here at Baggies Banter.