West Brom boss Slaven Bilic has urged his players to battle through the festive fatigue to maintain their grip on top spot in the Sky Bet Championship table.
The leaders saw two precious points slip from their grasp at lowly Barnsley on Boxing Day when Aapo Halme’s late equaliser cancelled out Filip Krovinovic’s early strike and ensured the game finished 1-1.
Bilic’s men remain three points clear of second-placed Leeds, who were held at home by Preston, but know they cannot afford another slip-up when improving Middlesbrough head for the Hawthorns on Sunday.
The head coach told the club’s official website: “Maybe the guys are a bit fatigued. In the last few games, we have had three draws and one win.
“We are trying to recover the players and refresh them. It is a very busy period. We lost a little bit of fluidness in our game, also we have to give credit to our opponent.
“But we have to take it back and bring it back in our next home game against Middlesbrough.”
Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds are without a win in three following their 1-1 draw against Preston as they travel to Birmingham hoping for better fortunes, although they still enjoy an eight-point advantage over Brentford in third.
Bielsa told Leeds’ official website: “We should have drawn level in the match before we did and even after when we draw level at the end, after we did this, we could have scored one more goal, we had one more chance.
“We have to make difference between the first 20 minutes and the other 75 minutes.”
Huddersfield sit four points clear of the relegation zone following their reverse on Teesside and will hope to end Blackburn’s unbeaten eight-game run at the John Smith’s Stadium, while Luton face a difficult task to drag themselves out of the bottom three when they travel to Bristol City.
