West Brom 1 Sunderland 2: Highlights as Dennis Cirkin goals send Cats into the Championship play-off places

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture at West Brom.

We’ll have all the build-up ahead of the match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.

We’ll start with the Sunderland team news - with several players unavailable .

Centre-back Danny Batth is set to miss the rest of the season with a knee injury which he sustained during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Huddersfield.

Edouard Michut missed that fixture with a back issue but could return to the squad, while Joe Gelhardt has been managing an ankle issue but is still expected to be involved today.

Luke O’Nien is also expected to be in the squad, yet the defender is still waiting for the birth of his child and is on standby to ensure he can be with his wife when needed.

Dennis Cirkin is available again after serving a one-match suspension against Huddersfield following his red card against Birmingham.

Dan Ballard is still unavailable with a hamstring issue, while long-term absentees Ross Stewart, Aji Alese, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton and Jewison Bennette all remain sidelined.

West Brom are a point ahead of Sunderland in the Championship table following back-to-back wins in away games at Stoke and Blackpool.

The Baggies also have injury issues after striker Daryl Dike was ruled out for the rest of the season earlier this week.

Dike is the club’s second top scorer this season with seven goals, two behind Brandon Thomas-Asante on nine.

Kyle Bartley, Matt Phillips, Grady Diangana, Dara O’Shea, Adam Reach are also set to miss out today, while midfielder Okay Yokuslu is a doubt and will be assessed ahead of the match.

Midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah is set to miss the next three weeks with ankle ligament damage.

Here’s what Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray had to say about his former club West Brom:

“West Brom are a really good team.

“I watched a bit of the game back, the home game against them. I think we played really well for maybe an hour in that game and then they really showed how talented they were, they put us under real pressure late on and got themselves a winner.

“They have some very talented individuals. They took some of the best free transfers the league offered last year, Swift and Wallace.

“I think they are a really dangerous team, I managed West Brom and know the emotion and passion of the place when it’s going well.

“I was just reading they are postponing their campaign against the ownership in support of the team trying to push for the play-offs.

“I think it will be a really good game. I’m sure we will take an enormous number of people along to support us and I know that when that stadium is near full it’s an amazing place to play football.”

And here’s what West Brom boss Carlos Corberan had to say about Sunderland:

“I think it’s going to be a very nice game because they try to compete by making the best football that they can make.

“They like to play out from the back, they like to dominate the ball, they like to have the ball.

“So this means that it’s one game that if we want to do well, we need to know how to press and press well, and we need to know how to defend, and defend well.

“We need to have the ball, too, and know what to do with the ball, because they have the capability to have the ball a lot and be comfortable.”

Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:

Predicted West Brom XI: Palmer, Furlong, Ajayi, Pieters, Townsend, Gardner-Hickman, Molumby, Swift, Wallace, Rogic, Thomas-Asante

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Gooch, Hume, O’Nien, Cirkin, Neil, Ekwah, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Pritchard

Here’s what the Championship table looks like after yesterday’s results.

A Sunderland win today would move them up to sixth.