Huddersfield v West Brom: Championship – live!

31 min: Matt Phillips going into the book was his first real involvement. With half-hour gone, he has mustered just five touches. Says a lot. West Brom are struggling.

29 min: Matt Phillips is booked for a crude challenge on Andy King. West Brom attempt to switch into gear but this time Robson-Kanu loses his footing. They are yet to test Jonas Lossl in goal.

26 min: Fraizer Campbell pickpockets Romaine Sawyers on the edge of the West Brom box but, just as he shapes to shoot, he loses his footing. Another sloppy piece of play by West Brom, who are not exactly relishing the pressure.

24 min: Drinks break! Leeds, as it stands, are going up!

22 min: … Pereira’s delivery is good but Livermore cannot meet it on the penalty spot. West Brom are seeing a lot more of the ball but Huddersfield are chasing in packs, preventing Diangana and co from having too much joy. But Chris Willock goes into the book for a cynical tug on Diangana, just as the winger attempted to speed away. Earlier Chalobah was involved in some handbags with Pereira. He, too, has to be careful having already been booked.

21 min: … Stearman flicks it away from danger. West Brom corner …

18 min: Trevoh Chalobah is booked for time-wasting. With less than 20 minutes played. That’s almost impressive.

15 min: Chris Willock goes on another mazy run, this time on the edge of the box, jinking inside Livemore before wringing Semi Ajayi inside-out, but in the end he overhits his final pass. Huddersfield are not playing like a team hovering above the relegation zone. West Brom, meanwhile, are very much playing like one that knows there is an awful lot riding on this match.

13 min: Hegazi heads wide from a deep free-kick. He towers above Huddersfield’s Harry Toffolo but his header is wayward.

11 min: Livermore attempts to release Dara O’Shea on halfway but the West Brom skipper overcooks his pass. That sums it up. They are yet to get going. Diangana and Pereira are yet to have a sniff.

9 min: Another marauding run by Willock almost ends in tears for West Brom. The winger, who failed to make an appearance for West Brom during a five-month loan spell earlier this season, is causing havoc down the right flank. That goal must’ve tasted sweet.

7 min: Willock goes on a weaving run – he is full of positivity, shrugging off Pereira, Livemore and Ajayi before winning a corner, which comes to nothing. Off the ball, in the buildup to that corner being given, Romaine Sawyers trips Frazier Campbell inside the box and the Huddersfield dugout are adamant it was deliberate. West Brom are struggling to compose themselves.

Bacuna’s delicious cross towards the front post causes panic and Chris Willock stabs home! Sam Johnstone repels the ball in with his left knee and it cannons towards Willock, who coolly fires home. It stemmed from a silly challenge by Dara O’Shea, but Leeds and Brentford will not care an inch. A dream start for Huddersfield!

2 min: O’Shea gives Bacuna a bump and Huddersfield earn a free-kick on the edge of the 18-yard box. Huddersfield will swing it in from the left …

1 min: But it is West Brom who jump straight on to the front foot, with Hal Robson-Kanu spinning on his heels out wide, driving down the left before Huddersfield head away his cross. An encouraging start if nothing else.

Here we go, then! Will West Brom silence those doubters and eke out a much-needed win? Will Huddersfield add to their tally in their fight for survival? And, perhaps most significantly, will Leeds be a Premier League team in two hours’ time?

A relatively sullen-looking Slaven Bilic speaks. “We are ready, we are confident, we know we are playing against a team that needs points also,” he says. “We have to embrace this opportunity. It is a privilege to be in this position and we are ready to give everything to get us closer to the Premier League.”

Danny Cowley speaks. “It’s an important game for both teams, a huge challenge for us but one we are looking forward to,” he says. His Huddersfield team have not scored in their past four matches. “We have been short of goals in recent weeks and when you’re a team in relegation trouble, you find it hard to find goals. We have dried up but we’ve got real belief in our players and we know if we create chances then we will take them.”

If it was not already clear, anything other than a West Brom win would see Leeds return to the top flight after 16 long years away. Marcelo Bielsa was typically philosophical after a hard-fought win over Barnsley on Thursday. “It was a collective effort, we had to run a lot to keep the result and I value a lot the courage and effort all of the players did to keep the result,” Bielsa said. “Until the situation is mathematically resolved we can not talk about promotion. We [myself and my coaches] will not watch the West Brom or Brentford games. We focus on ourselves.”

Some pre-match reading on the unravelling of Hull:

Team news news: Slaven Bilic tweaks things from West Brom’s draw with Fulham in midweek, with Matt Phillips and Hal Robson-Kanu replacing Kamil Grosicki and Charlie Austin. Meanwhile Karlan Grant drops to the bench for Huddersfield.

Huddersfield (4-2-3-1): Lossl; Stearman, Schindler, Chalobah, Toffolo; King, Hogg; Willock, Bacuna, O’Brien; Campbell

Subs: Coleman, Kachunga, Grant, Pritchard, Mounie, Stankovic, J Brown, Smith Rowe, Duhaney

West Brom (4-2-3-1): Johnstone; O’Shea, Ajayi, Hegazi, Townsend; Sawyers, Livermore; Phillips, Pereira, Diangana; Robson-Kanu

Subs: Bond, Furlong, Bartley, Brunt, Harper, Grosicki, Krovinovic, Robinson, Austin

Referee: John Brooks

Oh how West Brom need this. They kick-off the penultimate round of Championship fixtures knowing victory against Huddersfield will inch them closer to a Premier League return. But the jitters have well and truly started and should they slip up once more, their fate will tumble out of their hands and into the laps of Brentford, who have won all seven games since the restart. But Leeds, too, will be watching with great interest. Well, Marcelo Bielsa and his staff might not be – presumably they will be glued to The Chase, another kind of pulsating climax – but fans will, oddly, be willing on their Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield, who can inadvertently promote Leeds should they prevent Slaven Bilic’s side from picking up all three points.

Bilic has maintained those below them would sooner be in West Brom’s position but they are wobbling and Brentford are breathing down their necks, just one point behind them despite being 10 points adrift when the season was halted. “The key is to be very calm,” he said. “We have to share that pressure. It has always been in our own hands. It has been that way since September. From round seven, you’re checking on other results. The whole year, we have relied only on us.”

It is not all about Leeds and West Brom, though, with Huddersfield not yet out of the woods at the bottom. Victory would all but guarantee safety after a bruising season following relegation. “My daughter was looking at results yesterday,” said Danny Cowley, quizzed about the permutations this week. “We need to get it over the line which we’re looking to do in these last two games. We got back from Hillsborough about 1am on Wednesday morning. I watched Fulham v West Brom until 3am and got into work after 5am so we could prepare for West Brom. It’s really busy but work’s only work if that’s what you perceive it to be.”

Kick-off: 5.30pm (BST)