Albion Under-21s head to Premier League 2 high-flyers Ipswich Town on Friday evening (ko 7pm).
Leigh Downing’s youngsters have won two league matches on the bounce, scored seven goals, and find themselves in fine form as they venture out to Suffolk.
Hosts, Ipswich, have won their last four matches and are level with first-placed Chelsea in the division after collecting 34 points from 16 games played.
Last time out
A hectic encounter took place as the Baggies' hopefuls overcame Derby County at Damson Park earlier this week.
The young pros went a goal down after eight minutes, but a pair of braces from Eseosa Sule and Remar McNeil meant the hosts secured a 4-2 victory - ensuring consecutive PL2 triumphs.
Venue
The JobServe Community Stadium, home of Colchester United, is the location for the 21s' trip on Friday evening.
Pre-match thoughts
Forward Jack Bray made a long-awaited return from injury for Albion's PL2 team on Monday night.
Having joined the Baggies from Harrogate Town in the summer of 2025, the Barnsley-born attacker, who can play across all of the front three positions, has been sidelined with an ankle injury since October but certainly showed what he was capable of - notably, bagging a brace of goals against Italian giants Juventus in the PL International Cup last year.
The 19-year-old recovered, after an initial setback, in time for the youngsters' triumph earlier in the week - as he managed a short cameo appearance to gain much-needed touches of the ball back in a competitive setting.
Now, ready to begin increasing his match minutes, Bray hopes to help the U21s “kill matches off” - starting with a trip to the Tractor Boys on Friday evening, as Bray looks to have a strong end to the campaign in navy-blue-and-white.
He said: “It was a great feeling to get back out there. I’ve worked hard to get back and I really enjoyed it.
“I was close earlier in the season and had a setback, but I’ve been working tirelessly ever since to get myself fit and ready to get back out there.
“I spent a lot of weeks in the gym, then weeks on my own doing my running outside to try and get back to training sharpness. I got back into training, did a couple of weeks of training, then got my first minutes against Derby.
“It’s frustrating not to play, but it’s about staying motivated, working hard in the gym and keeping your head in the game.
“We’ve had some good results since I’ve been away, we’re having a good couple of cup runs, we’re through to the quarter-finals - those games are something to look forward to now I’m back.
“The guys have been creating lots of chances, scoring a lot of goals, we scored four on Monday, three in the two previous weeks and, hopefully, I can help improve that further. We scored four goals in the Derby match, so we should be winning any game when you score that many.
“In the second half of that one, we dominated the game, could’ve scored more and after getting on - I didn’t want the whistle to go. It’s always a great feeling to come back onto the field after a while out.
“Once I’m fully match sharp, I can start games and help us get over the line in the matches we’ve done well in. I hope I can help us kill matches off and take my chances to score when we get them.
“It’ll be a very different game on Friday because they’re joint-top of the league.
"We know it's going to be a different test and, hopefully, we can carry on this unbeaten run and see what we can do from then until the end of the season.”
How to follow
Supporters can keep up-to-date with Friday’s PL2 match across the club’s social media channels, with half-time, full-time, and goal updates as they go in.
The match report and reaction will be available on the club website in the coming days.
