West Bromwich Albion v Sunderland: Back a 16/5 Gelhardt goal in Championship glut

• Back-to-back WBA wins have them on brink of play-offs

• Sunderland have a terrible record at The Hawthorns

• Sunderland need to win to keep their play-off hopes alive

West Bromwich Albion v Sunderland, Sunday 23rd April, Sky Sports Football 12pm

West Brom v Sunderland
Sunday, 12:00
Live on Sky Sports

Baggies Boinging Back

West Brom's play-off hopes looked to have been dashed after the transpired to squander leads against lowly Rotherham and QPR, but back-to-back away wins at Stoke mean they now sit just outside the top six with a game in hand on plenty of their rivals.

The issue that Carlos Corberan has is that the extra game comes at Bramall Lane, so may not yield the required points, but this game is an opportunity to both push themselves closer to a coveted play-off berth whilst possibly ending the Black Cats' own challenge.

Their task is made more difficult due to striker Daryl Dike suffering a serious achilles injury, but Brandon Thomas-Asante scored in the 2-0 win at Blackpool and with the attacking trio of Jed Wallace, John Swift and Karlan Grant behind him there is plenty of firepower to help maintain this form.

Amazing Amad Back In Form

Sunderland come into this unbeaten in their last six Championship games, although there will be a feeling of a missed opportunity after squandering a 1-0 lead at home to Huddersfield to only get a point.

Like their opponents, a season that looked like it was drifting towards mid-table mediocity has been revived by that run, and as was the case with the good form earlier in the season, the architect is Amad Diallo.

The Manchester United loanee is up for Championship Young Player of the Season at the EFL Awards on Sunday, and has put a quiet spell well behind him in recent weeks.

Playing off the right hand side, he has struck up a good understanding with Joe Gelhardt and has five goals and an assist in his last eight starts. In what is another massive game for Sunderland, they will be hoping for more Diallo magic to light up The Hawthorns.

Hawthorns Hell For Sunderland

West Brom have lost just one of their last 16 league games against Sunderland (W10 D5), a 2-0 defeat in the Premier League in May 2014.

They are also unbeaten in their last 12 home league matches (W9 D3), keeping 10 clean sheets and conceding just three goals, although they did draw 2-2 with QPR last time out on home soil.

Sunderland have lost seven of their last eight away league games against West Brom (D1), last winning at the Hawthorns in 2006-07 under Roy Keane, although their is some cause for positivity have kept a clean sheet in their last three away league matches, last keeping four in a row in January 2021 in League One.

Gelhardt In The Goals

Despite West Brom's good defensive record at home under Carlos Corberan, there is reason to believe Sunderland can cause them real problems especially given a draw does little to help the away side's promotion chances.

Joe Gelhardt has scored in both of his last two starts including a smart finish last time out in the draw against Huddersfield.

His goal return of three in 987 minutes since joining on loan from Leeds looks underwhelming, but he has looked far more at home in recent weeks and put in his best performance in a Sunderland shirt in midweek.

If this is an open game as expected, Gelhardt with be Sunderland's main goal threat and has to be backed at 16/5 to get on the scoresheet.