West Brom vs Crystal Palace: Will fringe players keep up momentum?

The Carabao Cup is not the priority this season and considering it is sandwiched in between two busy weeks of Championship action, Darren Moore is expected to use the full depth of his squad.

Matt Phillips’s injury on Saturday suggests the heavy fixture schedule is beginning to catch up with some of Albion’s first XI, so the second string will get a chance to shine tonight while the regulars rest up ahead of Saturday’s trip to Preston North End.

“We’ve got a squad of players here,” said Moore. “We’ll assess the team and see where it’s at.

“It won’t just be the Cup, we’ll look at games ahead of us as well.”

Anyway, it would be unfair on Albion’s fringe players and youngsters to drop them from the Cup team now after coming through Luton Town and Mansfield.

Squad harmony is important, particularly when the head coach’s main message is “we not me”.

Crystal Palace will provide a much sterner test than the lower-league visitors, even though Roy Hodgson will probably pick a second XI himself.

What that means, though, is Moore will get a better barometer on his promising youngsters.

Perform well against Palace, and they really will be giving him food for thought ahead of a three-game burst in eight days.

James Morrison could also return to first-team action after featuring for the U23s last Friday.

Albion’s boss has now taken charge of 10 games at The Hawthorns. He’s won seven, drawn two, and lost just the once.

Considering the two draws came in his first game as caretaker and against Liverpool, the only blot on his copybook at home is the opening day defeat to Bolton.

Cause an upset tonight, and the Baggies will have won their last seven in a row at The Hawthorns.

“It will be a big test but we are making this place a bit of a fortress and the Cup is a brilliant competition to continue the momentum we’ve got,” said defender Kyle Bartley.

“Our main priority is the league but winning breeds confidence.”

This season, Moore has moved training on the day before night games to the evening.

As well as being a sign of his own attention to detail, he also believes it helps break up the routine of training and keeps the players on their toes.

“Just to chop and change it,” he said. “There’s no real emphasis, it was just to move it around a bit really. I can’t elaborate too much, we just look at it week by week.”

Moore has won seven of his last nine games in all competitions – the Baggies are on a bit of a roll.

And while defeat to Premier League opposition would hardly be the end of the world, keeping that momentum going into the trio of games coming up could prove lucrative to Albion’s early league exploits.

The opposition: Roy Hodgson set for hero’s welcome at The Hawthorns

Roy Hodgson’s return to The Hawthorns was slightly overshadowed last season – because it was Alan Pardew’s first game in charge.

At that stage, Albion fans were more concerned with how their post-Pulis team would perform under their new head coach.

Hodgson still received a hero’s welcome last December, and gave plenty of love back to the Baggies afterwards.

“To get that reception as an away manager was touching,” he said. “I’m really grateful for it. It put the biggest smile on my face for a long time.”

A recent online poll ran by the Apna Albion Punjabi supporters group proves how highly regarded Hodgson is in these parts.

The 70-year-old, who left Albion for the England job in 2012, beat both Gary Megson and Tony Mowbray to the title of best Baggies boss of the 21st century.

Hodgson is bound to receive another warm reception at his old stomping ground tonight, and he arrives at The Hawthorns with an impressive away record.

Crystal Palace haven’t scored at Selhurst Park yet this season, but they’ve won three out of four games on their travels.

Hodgson is expected to pick a second string for tonight’s game, but those fringe players proved too much for another relegated side, Swansea, in the last round.

Alexandr Sorloth scored the only goal in that game, and the 22-year-old Norwegian is likely to be given another chance to shine in the same competition.

In stark contrast to the Baggies, Palace have struggled for goals this season.

They’ve only netted five times in seven games, and have scored just three goals in their last six.

With Christian Benteke and Connor Wickham currently sidelined through injury, they lean heavily on Wilfried Zaha.

Hodgson has never been convinced of his striking options at Palace and last season he played winger Zaha and Andros Townsend up front to good effect.

Those two are unlikely to feature tonight, while the likes of Sorloth and Jordan Ayew will be given chances to impress ahead of next week’s trip to Bournemouth.

“I’ve now got the choice of using one or the other of those or both but I’ve also got the choice of Wilf and Andros,” said Hodgson.

“They’ve done extremely well for us in the past in those positions so I personally haven’t written off them as forward players because I have so many good memories of what they did for us last year.””

While it may be a second string Palace side who play at The Hawthorns, Townsend insists Palace have to start scoring soon.

“You cannot be creating seven or eight chances and not scoring,” he said, after Saturday’s goalless draw with Newcastle. “We have to learn from that.”

For Sorloth and Ayew, there is more than just a place in the next round up for grabs.

Likely line-up:

Subs: Bond, Dawson, Howkins, Livermore, Leko, Robson-Kanu, Gayle.

Palace (4-4-1-1): Guaita, Wan-Bissaka, Kelly, Inniss, Schlupp, Riedewald, Williams, Kouyaté, Meyer, Puncheon, Sørloth.

The boss says:

"We’ve got a squad of players here. It won’t just be the cup, we’ll look at games ahead of us as well. I’m looking forward to seeing Roy and his team."

Memory lane:

Twenty years ago, Albion beat Palace 5-3 at The Hawthorns thanks to a Don Goodman hat-trick. Robert Hopkins and John Paskin grabbed the other goals.

Key man:

Oliver Burke isn’t even getting on the bench now, so the £15m man could use an eye-catching performance against Premier League opposition.

Dangerman:

Max Meyer

The German wunderkind burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old for Schalke and his arrival at Selhurst Park in summer was something of a coup.

However, he’s been limited to substitute appearances in the Premier League so far and is expected to start in midfield tonight after impressing off the bench at the weekend.