Looking to keep their impressive home record, Watford will host playoff-chasing rivals West Bromwich Albion at Vicarage Road for a Championship match on Sunday evening.

The Hornets could only manage a 1-1 draw at relegation-threatened Hull City earlier in the week, while the Baggies enjoyed a much-needed victory over Coventry City in the Black Country.

After a lacklustre 15th-placed finish in the Championship during the 2023-24 campaign – the club’s lowest placement in over a decade – Watford are currently defying pre-season expectations, with Sunday’s hosts a Vicarage Road making a genuine charge for the playoff spots.

The Hornets are five matches without defeat after a Wednesday night trip to MKM Stadium, where Rocco Vata’s maiden goal for the Hertfordshire side rescued a point against Hull City, who experienced their first game with former Reading manager Ruben Selles at the helm.

Despite an excellent run of just the single defeat across their last eight second-tier matches, there are worries that Watford could be perfoming even better, with some pundits and supporters alike criticising Tom Cleverly’s apparent safety-first approach to recent games.

Nevertheless, such methods have yieled a respectable tally on nine points from the last five matches, maning that Watford are within striking distance of the playoff spots ahead of this weekend’s contest, one point behind sixth-placed West Brom in the Championship standings.

On the contrary to their inconsistent and leaky form on their travels, Watford are relishing an excellent string of results in front of their home faithful in the Championship, with Cleverley’s side unbeaten and collecting 23 points across nine Vicarage Road games so far in 2024-25.

Following a freakish run of 11 draws from 12 Championship matches, West Brom secured their seventh win of the league campaign on Wednesday night, when Coventry City suffered their maiden defeat of the Frank Lampard era despite creating the majority of the chances at The Hawthorns.

A surprise star for the Baggies during the opening months of the season, Karlan Grant bagged his fifth second-tier goal of the campaign against the Sky Blues after a deflected strike from Alex Mowatt commenced the scoring in the Black Country, meaning that West Brom enjoyed their biggest win since the 3-0 thrashing of Portsmouth on September 15.

Losing just two of their first 20 matches of the league schedule, it is no surprise that West Brom are competing near the top of the division, but a record-breaking 11 draws have left Carlos Corberan’s side hanging onto the playoff spots, just a single point ahead of seventh-placed Middlesbrough.

Despite Watford’s formidable home record, the Baggies should be quietly confident of posting a positive result at Vicarage Road considering that they have been beaten once across 10 Championship matches this season, with only Burnley (four) conceding fewer than Albion’s nine away goals.

Watford vs. West Brom Head to head

In the previous 37 meetings between these two teams, Watford have claimed 10 victories while West Brom have won 15, and they have drawn in 12.

• 24/07/2021
  Watford

  0

  West Bromwich Albion

  0
  Club Friendlies
• 08/08/2022
  West Bromwich Albion

  1

  Watford

  1
  Championship
• 20/02/2023
  Watford

  3

  West Bromwich Albion

  2
  Championship
• 20/09/2023
  Watford

  2

  West Bromwich Albion

  2
  Championship
• 01/04/2024
  West Bromwich Albion

  2

  Watford

  2
  Championship