Final game of the campaign should not be Mozza’s last

Sheffield Wednesday v West Bromwich Albion; Hillsborough, Saturday 2nd May 2026, 12.30pm

The 2025/26 campaign will go down as one to forget for West Bromwich Albion, but it is ending on a high with interim head coach, James Morrison, looking to complete the season with an eleven match unbeaten run.

Such a string of results was unthinkable in the first two months of 2026 as the team floundered, firstly under Ryan Mason and then under the disastrous tenure of Eric Ramsay, but thankfully the club acted in good time and Mozza was able to re-float what was undoubtedly a sinking ship.

The parallels with the 2017/18 season are obvious, but so are the differences. Eight years ago, Alan Pardew had been appointed much earlier (early December) in the campaign than Ramsay was this season, but he too went nine games without victory before enjoying three wins in four games, two of which were in the FA Cup. The second of those cup victories, at Anfield, proved to be Pardew’s undoing as he opted to continue with an abridged version of a training camp in Spain he had planned for the fifth round weekend expecting defeat at Liverpool. Taxigate and Pardew’s failure to suitably punish the offenders eroded his authority in the dressing room, and the team’s performances spiralled.

Albion suffered nine successive defeats before Mark Jenkins finally pulled the trigger and sacked Pardew, and I wonder if Mark Miles, who was at the club at the time, counselled Bilkul on the dangers of letting a deteriorating situation linger for too long. Darren Moore was only given six games to save the season, and he came very close to doing so – sacking Ramsay before the end of February gave Morrison twice as many games to work with, and a far greater chance of success.

The parallels do not end there, of course. Moore was appointed as the club’s permanent head coach in the summer of 2018 and the Telegraph’s John Percy, the man who broke the story on Albion’s PSR breach, suggested on Wednesday that the club was close to appointing Morrison permanently. If confirmed, it is a decision that neither surprises nor concerns me. Given Bilkul’s history of head coach appointments and the groundswell of support for Mozza from the majority of Baggies fans, it would be a huge risk not to appoint him.

Some have expressed concerns about his lack of experience, and also point to the fact that Big Dave was sacked 36 games into the following campaign and has hardly pulled up any trees since, but there are a few differences. Moore had not worked very much with the first team before being elevated, and he also didn’t appoint his assistant until the summer. It is my belief that Graeme Jones, the man appoint to assist Moore, was a huge part of the problems that season and I have been told that the club would have kept Big Dave had he agreed to sack Jones, but being the loyal gentleman he is, Moore refused.

Morrison’s extensive experience as a first team coach, his larger body of work as a head coach and the fact that he has already been working with an experienced assistant in Matt Gill all count in his favour. Furthermore, as a side relegated from the Premier League, the expectations on Moore were much higher (Albion were fourth when he was sacked), whereas Mozza will have much more latitude and a respectable mid-table finish next season would not be seen as a failure.

Saturday’s opponents are looking to avoid a couple of unwelcome records – no side has every gone through a 23-game second tier home campaign without a victory and no side has ever been relegated with negative points. Hillsborough is a sell-out for the final game of the season with the Wednesday fans demonstrating their support for a team that has battled against incredible odds this season, and there will undoubtedly be some joint expression of anti-EFL feeling with both clubs having been subject to sporting penalties for financial misdemeanours. With both clubs suffering as a result of mismanagement from previous owners, and Wednesday to be further punished next season, it seems clear to me that the current PSR regulations are not fit for purpose.

While the hosts will be keen to record a first home win of the season, James Morrison and his team will be equally determined to extend their unbeaten run. With Karlan Grant and Tammer Bany having returned to fitness in the last couple of weeks, it seems likely that Jed Wallace may also be available for the final game of the season. Wallace was a key figure in the first few games of Morrison’s tenure before his calf injury forced a rethink and the surprising tactical switch to put Jayson Molumby on the right side of midfield. The Irishman has thrived in that position and his tendency to play a bit narrower has also helped Danny Imray to provide more of an attacking threat.

I wouldn’t expect Wallace to start at Hillsborough, but I’m sure he will be on the bench if fit, and be introduced for what could be his final appearance in an Albion shirt. Once this match is over, attention will soon turn to the “retained list” with Wallace one of several senior first team players out of contract. Daryl Dike, Josh Maja, Karlan Grant, and Max O’Leary are also on that list while Taylor, Imray, Jimoh-Aloba and Mustapha will return to their parent clubs at the end of loan spells. Morrison, if he is appointed permanently, will have some decisions to make.

First of all, however, he has one more game to manage this season. Victory would move the Baggies onto 54 points, 56 if you ignore the two point deduction that I sincerely hope the club with appeal, still the lowest tally the club has achieved in the second tier since 2000, but well above what we thought possible a few short weeks ago. It would also be the sixth away victory of the season, a tally only bettered once since the Baggies’ last promotion season.

Failure to win would be disappointing given how poor Sheffield Wednesday have been this season, even though they will get a boost from the sell out crowd, but it wouldn’t detract from the incredible impact that James Morrison has made in the last two months.

He may well have the job before kick-off – he certainly deserves it.

History

Saturday’s match will be the 125th meeting between the sides and the 62nd meeting in Sheffield. The clubs first met in an FA Cup tie in 1891 when The Wednesday, as the Yorkshire club was then known, were playing at their first permanent home, Olive Grove, a venue in the south of the city not too far from the home of Steel City rivals, Sheffield United. In fact, The Wednesday were one of the six cricket clubs that helped build Bramall Lane and, indeed, played football there before choosing Olive Grove as their permanent base in 1887.

Although the hosts had reached the FA Cup final the previous season, the visitors won that first match 2-0 thanks to goals from Willie Groves and Tom Pearson and also beat the The Wednesday at Stoney Lane in the following season’s FA Cup. Wednesday joined the expanded Football League in 1892 and promptly recorded their first win over Albion at Olive Grove in January 1893, a thumping 6-0 victory that remains their biggest win in this fixture.

Wednesday moved to the north of the city when the land at Olive Grove was needed for the expansion of the railways in 1899. The new stadium, initially called Owlerton but later renamed Hillsborough, opened in the September of that year after Wednesday had suffered their first relegation to Division Two – they bounced back immediately winning all seventeen league games at their new home in the 1899-1900 campaign and it wouldn’t be until December 1913 that Albion recorded a victory at the venue. It was a handsome victory with a brace from Ernie Edwards and further goals from Fred Morris and Bob Pailor earning the Baggies a 4-1 victory.

While Albion won 5-2 at Hillsborough on a couple of occasions, that margin of victory has only been bettered once, in November 2009, when Simon Cox (2), Jerome Thomas and Chris Brunt were all on target to earn Roberto di Matteo’s team a 4-0 victory.

That was the Baggies’ last win at Wednesday with fans in attendance – a Charlie Austin penalty and a brace from Matheus Pereira earned Slaven Bilić’s team a 3-0 win in July 2020 during Project Restart as Albion scrambled over the line for a return to the Premier League.

In their two visits to Hillsborough since then, the Baggies conceded three goals in each match, losing 3-0 in April 2024 and 3-2 in September of the same year.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

1 Nov 2025 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 0
Sheffield Wednesday 0

Last meeting at Sheffield Wednesday

28 Sep 2024 – League Championship
Sheffield Wednesday 3 (Furlong (o.g.), Windass, Musaba)
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Maja, Mowatt)

Last win

8 Feb 2025 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Armstrong, Molumby)
Sheffield Wednesday 1 (Paterson)

Last win at Sheffield Wednesday

1 Jul 2020 – League Championship
Sheffield Wednesday 0
West Bromwich Albion 3 (Austin (pen), Pereira (2))

Albion’s Record against Sheffield Wednesday