Albion Under-21s face a vital last Premier League 2 game of the season against Middlesbrough on Friday night (ko 7pm).
The task for Richard Beale’s men in the North East is simple - win, and they break into the top 16 spots which would see them qualify for the Play-Off stages of the competition due to the current standings (see below).
Their last result gave them hope of extending the campaign, but character and quality will be needed if they’re to succeed in their quest to claim a spot in the end-of-season knockout format and qualify for the PL International Cup next term.
Last time out
A morale-boosting win over Arsenal helped the young Baggies improve their chances of extending the 2024/25 campaign last Monday.
Eseosa Sule and Cole Deeming netted braces to help Beale’s boys to a 4-3 victory over their high-flying opponents at Damson Park.
Venue
A trip to Bishop Auckland awaits Albion’s 21s, who play their decisive PL2 match against ‘Boro at Heritage Park on Friday.
Pre-match thoughts
Cole Deeming made his first 21s start in over two months on Monday evening, and he hopes that goal-scoring return can be used to help the young Baggies to another victory before the end of the week.
The midfielder last featured in the PL2 team at the end of January following a hamstring complaint, but after returning to match fitness in the U18s during recent weeks, Cole was able to start his first match back under Beale in the recent triumph over the Gunners.
It was 74 minutes the 18-year-old was more than happy with, netting twice - including one screamer - to ease himself back into the swing of things and having missed over two months of action, the boyhood Baggies fan is keen on helping the club’s young hopefuls extend their campaign.
Some strike, @coledeeming8. 🤯
The highlights from our #PL2 side's win over Arsenal earlier this week are available here! 👇— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) April 16, 2025
Cole said: “It’s been a tough start to the year for me.
“I suffered my first proper injury, came back and got some minutes with the 18s and impacted their games - scoring against Villa, which is always nice when you net against them.
“So for my first start back in the 21s, I just wanted to show I’m back, get my space in the team and to score two goals - especially the second one - it doesn’t get much better than that and I was buzzing with it.
“I just wanted to make sure, because I hadn’t experienced such a major injury before, that I did everything properly in my recovery.
“It was just tunnel vision for me during the process because there’s always light at the end of it, so I was focused on doing everything right so in the event that I did come back early, I knew I’d be getting back to the level I was at before.
“Hamstrings are tender and I thought it was season-ending at first. It took me back a bit because I wasn’t expecting to be out that long, but we did a re-scan and it had healed really well which sped up the process.
“This situation we’re in is what we want. Youth football doesn’t always depend on wins, but the ones you want to play in are the ones where you need the points, need to be competitive, need to win, and those scenarios really help set us up for first-team football.
“Every team in the league provides a tough game, but you have to go into each one with the same mentality and Friday will be no different.
“We want to win, and what the opposition do in the grand scheme of things doesn’t matter regardless of who it’s against, but it has the competitive edge on it where we need to win to reach the Play-Offs.
“I’ve hit good momentum so I just want to keep that going and if we get more games after this, then I’ll be looking to up those performances.
“More people will watch us if we reach that stage and because I haven’t been able to play in front of the new manager yet, hopefully I’m able to show him what I can do at some point in the future.
“A win would put more excitement into the games to come, both this year and next, but we go into Friday full of confidence off the back of a win and all we want is the three points."
How to follow
Owing to a first-team fixture being played on the same day, we will be unable to provide live coverage of Friday's match between the U21s and Middlesbrough.
The full report will be available on the club website over the weekend.
