Aston Villa and West Brom both lost their final games of the regular season.
Matt Murray has revealed that he is being told that ‘everyone’ wants to avoid Aston Villa in the playoffs ahead of their meeting with West Brom next Saturday.
The Midlands duo, who lost their final games of the regular season on Sunday, will meet for a mouthwatering tie playoff semi-final tie at Villa Park next weekend.
Prior to Villa losing to champions Norwich, they had won 10 out of their 12 league matches and they go into their up and coming games as the in-form team.
Speaking to Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports News (05/05/2019 at 12:05 pm), former Wolves goalkeeper Murray shared what he is hearing from both sets of supporters.
On WBA fielding a strong team v Derby: “I am not surprised in a way,” Murray told Soccer Saturday. “I think people want to avoid Aston Villa.
“You are in the area. I was getting my haircut, my beard trimmed and I was chatting to Villa and West Brom fans, everyone wants to avoid Aston Villa because they think over two legs [they know] what Villa can do.
“So, I think West Brom want to keep the momentum. They want to keep everybody right.”
It is likely that the games between Villa and West Brom will be high-scoring affairs given the fact that both teams have an abundance of attacking talent in their ranks.
Albion have the likes of Dwight Gayle and Jay Rodriquez, whilst Dean Smith’s side have Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham, Jack Grealish and John McGinn.
Last season, Villa beat Tony Pulis’ Middlesbrough over two-legs before losing the final to the now-relegated Fulham. There will be a number of players who played at Wembley last term and they will be looking to make things right this time around.
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