Shropshire Star

Lewis Cox's predicted West Brom line-up vs Portsmouth - change after attacking impact?

Ryan Mason's Albion starting line-up has more or less picked itself at the start of this new Championship season.

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And it is mostly a case of more of the same this weekend, too, as Portsmouth come to The Hawthorns looking to improve on the 5-1 rout dished out by Tony Mowbray's Baggies back in January.

Much has changed since, of course, and Albion are looking to start the league season with three wins for the first time since 1997/98.

The old adage comes into play here - why change a winning team?

Mason may be minded not to. He almost used the same starting XI at Wrexham last week that had taken to the field against Blackburn on the opening day, but there was no Torbjorn Heggem in north Wales, after the Norwegian completed his £9million move to Bologna in Italy.

In came new defensive recruit George Campbell, who for the most part coped admirably.

Of course the tale of the day in Wrexham was the impact of Mason's attacking substitutions. Jed Wallace and Mikey Johnston turned the contest in Albion's favour with their spark from the bench.