Albion fans will be hoping that new manager Roy Hodgson has had a positive influence on the team this week and can record a crucial victory against fierce Black Country rivals Wolves in his first game in charge of the club.
Morale at Albion is dropping at a similar rate to the club's slide down the league table, with Albion fans having to go back to mid-January to remember their last win and the disappointment of last week's spectactular second half collapse still fresh in their memory.
If Hodgson is to mastermind a victory over Wolves and keep Albion in the Premier League, his first job is to sure up the league's leakiest defence. The Baggies have conceded 51 goals this season, the highest in the league, and have gone a club record 24 Premier League games without a clean sheet.
The Baggies sit just outside the relegation zone, above Wigan Athletic only on goal difference, and will be looking to kick-start their run-in with a victory that would prevent Wolves leapfrogging above them and earning a huge pyschological advantage.
Wolves looking to improve terrible away form and boost survival hopes
Mick McCarthy's men have lost four of their last five league matches but will be confident that they can get a result at the Hawthorns in a derby game where the form book will almost certainly be out of the window.
Wolves have been woeful away from home this season, but the footballing Gods work in funny ways and it is interesting to note that the manager in charge of the opposition the last time Mick McCarthy's men won away from home in the Premier League was none other than new Albion boss Roy Hodgson during his ill-fated Liverpool days.
It has been an odd season for Wolves fans, who can see their side sitting bottom of the Premier League despite tasting victory against Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.
And the stats show that six of Wolves' seven victories this season have come against top-half-of-the-table opposition while they have collected just one point from a possible 15 against the four teams currently directly above them.
Eight of Wolves' last 12 games are against bottom half opposition and Mick McCarthy will need his team to forget about their big-name scalps and concentrate on beating the teams around them if they are to stay up - starting with this Sunday's mammoth derby clash.
TEAM NEWS
West Bromwich Albion
Roy Hodgson has been dealt a major blow in his first game as Albion boss after defensive midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu ruled himself out of Sunday's game on social network site Twitter in midweek.
Mulumbu was substituted after picking up a hamstring strain in the first half of last weekend's game against West Ham United and has not recovered in time for Sunday's Black Country derby. Graham Dorrans may be forced to curb his natural attacking instinct to play the holding role for Hodgson.
Doubts over Pablo Ibanez (hamstring), Steven Reid (knee) and Marek Cech (groin) have been eased by Hodgson who told the club's official site that, other than Mulumbu, his new squad has a clean bill of health.
Hodgson will have to decide whether to stick with the 4-4-2 formation preferred by first-team coach Michael Appleton last weekend or whether to play Peter Odemwingie as a lone front-man and choose between the likes of Jerome Thomas, Carlos Vela, Marc-Antoine Fortune and Somen Tchoyi to support him from the wings.
Possible starting XI: Myhill; Jara, Tamas, Olsson, Shorey; Vela, Dorrans, Scharner, Brunt, Thomas; Odemwingie.
Wolves
Defender Ronald Zubar is a fresh injury doubt for Mick McCarthy's men after the right-back picked up a swollen ankle in last weekend's 2-0 loss to Arsenal. If Zubar does not recover in time, then Kevin Foley would be his obvious replacement.
Stephen Hunt is unlikely to recover in time for Sunday, after missing the last three games with a calf injury, meaning January signing Adam Hammill will continue on the right wing with Tottenham loanee Jamie O'Hara playing behind Kevin Doyle.
Midfielder David Edwards is expected to be back in contention after missing the defeat in London with a groin problem but Michael Kightly (knee) and Adlene Guedioura (broken leg) remain on the long-term casualty list and will play no part in Sunday's derby clash.
Possible starting XI: Hennessey; Foley, Stearman, Berra, Elokobi; Hammill, Henry, Miljas, Jarvis; O'Hara; Doyle.
Prediction
West Bromwich 2-2 Wolves 
