Carlos Corberan will take his West Bromwich Albion team to Sheffield Wednesday this weekend expecting his players to maintain their intensity and high levels of performance which have been evident in their recent 10-match unbeaten run - and even in defeat to Leicester City last time out - especially as he knows what to expect from their hosts.
Corberan and Albion still require positive results in the remaining couple of matches of their season against Wednesday and then Preston North End on the final day to ensure that they take their place in the Championship play-offs - an area of the division in which they've held a position since November, but which is now under threat by Hull City, who crucially won at Coventry City on Wednesday night.
There'll be no letting up for the Baggies at Hillsborough, where they'll be backed by a sell-out away following and where they intend on returning to winning ways after a couple of uncharacteristic and consecutive defeats to Leicester and Sunderland before that. Corberan's approach, outlined on Wednesday at his press conference, will be music to the ears of rivals Birmingham City and his former club Huddersfield Town, who do battle on Saturday.
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While Blackburn Rovers and Plymouth Argyle remain entrenched in the battle to survive, the concern is more immediate for Blues and Town, who currently sit below the Owls in the table and who are separated by the dreaded, dotted relegation line. Albion doing the business - firstly for their own sake - would aid Blues and the Terriers no end in their own respective bids for safety.
"This is something that, fortunately in England, is never going to happen," Corberan said, when asked if teams with little to play for at this stage can be caught 'on the beach'. "We are going to play against this team - if you told me now that Sheffield will have survived, or will be already relegated, in either situation I will tell you that the game will be very complicated and competitive - 100%.
"They are fighting to survive. They know that if they win, it's a massively important step for them. If we win, it's massively important for us too, to achieve what we want to achieve. We are going to play one game, between two teams who are fighting to achieve the targets we have - different ones, but still targets. I expect a high, massively competitive game. The form of both teams is very similar.
"We've reviewed the details from Leicester. We can do better. The margin to do much better, the other day, maybe wasn't very big, but always there are things you can do better - otherwise, you wouldn't lose the game. Now we're preparing for the next opponent and it's important to understand the game we're going to play."
