The Tractor Boys bring their harvest to The Hawthorns

West Bromwich Albion versus Ipswich Town. It’s the match you didn’t know you needed in the League Cup, primarily because most of us forgot the competition was still running while the rest of the world is busy worrying about trophies that actually require a trophy cabinet. It’s a clash of the titans, provided your definition of a titan involves a heavy reliance on loan players from the Big Six and a deep-seated, ancestral fear of the Premier League trap door.

Carlos Corberán will likely be patrolling the touchline looking like a man who hasn’t slept since the invention of the inverted fullback, obsessing over xG maps while his defenders try to remember which way they’re supposed to be running. West Brom are the Championship’s equivalent of that reliable old sweater: comfortable, slightly bobbled, and occasionally capable of a SHOCKING result that reminds you why you haven't thrown it in the bin yet. They’ll play it tight, they’ll play it slow, and they’ll probably try to bore Ipswich into a catastrophic defensive lapse.

Then we have the Tractor Boys. Ipswich Town have spent the last two seasons making the rest of the league look like they’re playing through a vat of cold porridge. Kieran McKenna has turned a squad of relative unknowns into a high-pressing machine that would make even Ed Sheeran break into a nervous, acoustic sweat. They play with the kind of BLISSFUL optimism that usually results in a 4-3 thriller where nobody actually remembers how to defend a corner. It’s effective, it’s loud, and it’s deeply annoying for anyone who prefers a nice 0-0 draw.

In a cup competition famous for its utter indifference to logic, expect the Hawthorns to provide its usual atmospheric mix of grey skies and existential dread. West Brom will try to strangle the life out of the ball, while Ipswich will attempt to turn the pitch into a 100-meter sprint track. Something has to give, and it’ll likely be the structural integrity of the Albion goalmouth.

Prediction: West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Ipswich Town