Baggies face local rivals on Monday night
ALBION’s Premier League 2 boss James Shan is preparing to lead his side into battle against local rivals Villa on Monday night.
The Baggies, who will be looking to build on last week’s 1-0 win over Brighton at The Hawthorns, face the Championship outfit at Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium at 7pm.
Shan’s men can also take confidence from the league double they recorded over Villa during the 2015/16 campaign, where two 1-0 victories saw them claim the bragging rights.
Albion fell to a 3-1 defeat against an experienced Wolves side in August but the boss is hoping for a positive derby result this time around.
Shan said: “The Villa game will have an extra edge to it due to the fact it’s a derby.
“We were disappointed with the Wolves game in terms of our energy and distribution, but they were also a couple of years older than us in terms of physicality and experience.
“Hopefully against Villa we can find our rhythm and get our identity back.
“We played them at Walsall last year and it was a really good game which was played at a quick tempo throughout.
“I can see it being very much the same again.
“We won that night and we also beat them at The Hawthorns in the return fixture.
“It’s a development group but they are also in there to win games and there is an opportunity on Monday night to beat our local rivals.
“It’s important that we apply ourselves properly.”
Tickets are £3 adults and £1 concessions.
Come on you Baggies!