Sheffield Wednesday v West Brom: Baggies boss is paying no attention to the standings

On it featured two graphs, one showing the Championship form guide since Danny Rohl was appointed at Hillsborough in October. The other, which Corberan was more focused on, showed the division’s form table over 25 games – which had Albion seventh and the Owls eighth.

Relegation-battling Wednesday, under highly-rated young coach Rohl, who turns 35 on Sunday, have taken just three points fewer than promotion-hunting Albion over the course of more than half a season. The Owls have lost just once, to Leeds, in 10 home games.

Corberan’s point with this? To prove to his players, the media and supporters, that Saturday in South Yorkshire is anything but a case of ‘fifth against 21st’.

“I bring this, which normally I don’t,” Corberan said. “It was what I showed to my team today. Everyone in football sees the table. Look, they are down and you are up. The people think that there is this distance.

“In the last 25 games, which is more than half of the league, we are in the position seventh. They are in position eighth. Sheffield in that time have achieved 37 points. More than Hull City, or Middlesbrough, or Preston.

“They have achieved 37, we have achieved 40. Only three points difference in the last 25 games. You are going to play against this team.

“We aren’t playing against the Sheffield from the beginning, who couldn’t achieve results – we are playing a team that are with us, fighting to survive. We are fighting to achieve a play-off position. The game is going to be a very, very challenging and demanding game.”

Wednesday will be backed by a sold-out Hillsborough having last Sunday won at Blackburn to lift out of the drop zone by a single place and point.

Rivals Huddersfield and Birmingham, both below the Owls, play each other over in West Yorkshire on a pivotal afternoon.

Higher up the Championship table, victory for Hull over Coventry on Wednesday night means Albion cannot, mathematically at least, secure a play-off place with a victory as the Tigers can remain just three points adrift heading into the final day.

Albion’s goal difference is currently +23, compared to Hull’s +9, however, so victory would all-but mathematically seal the deal.

The Baggies have not lost three games in a row in more than 18 months under Corberan and are fighting to extend that statistic. One of their best displays of the season ended in defeat at Leicester last weekend.

The boss, though, warned some games might look easier to get up for than others. He added: “Do the players need this (information showing Wednesday’s form?) or not? I don’t know. But I want to know exactly the same, I think it’s important you understand the game and this form tells you the type of game you are going to play.

“Sometimes playing with Leicester is easy, because you know if you don’t go with your 100 per cent they will kill you. But if we don’t go 100 per cent with Sheffield, they will kill us too!

“Because this is the Championship, with good teams fighting for something. If you play against teams in certain positions in the table, to prepare emotionally is easy, but sometimes to play against another team you can relax – it’s not the case eh? It’s impossible to be the case after two defeats to go on the pitch to relax...impossible.

“We know that winning against Sheffield is going to be a massive challenge for us. Competing against Leicester you accept you are going to suffer, it’s normal and you won’t be frustrated.

But sometimes the people, fans, see the table from the outside, you need to understand nobody gave these 37 points to a team, this is a consequence of good work and mentality that the team has. They are competing with a massive mentality.”