Albion have secured a 13th place finish in Premier League 2 after drawing 1-1 with Wolves on Monday night.
The result means Shannon Ruth’s team will play Chelsea in the elimination playoffs – if you’re unsure of this season’s Premier League 2 format, you can find an explainer at the bottom of this piece.
Unfortunately for Albion, it does mean they will miss out on next season’s International Cup, which required a top 12 PL2 finish to qualify.
Albion had plenty of chances against Wolves to ensure they came away with all three points though.
Leigh Kavanagh headed over early on from Luca Barrington’s corner, before Wolves’ Owen Hesketh gave a taste of his excellent set pieces when his ball found Alfie Pond. His effort was saved by Tom McGill and striker Owen Farmer had his follow up well blocked by Ruairi McConville.
Pond would be found two more times from Hesketh free-kicks in the opening 45 minutes – glancing one wide and the other was well kept out by McGill at his near-post – while down the other end Kavanagh’s header hit the post and Benicio Baker-Boaitey scuffed wide when he should’ve hit the target.
Those who had waited patiently for goals were rewarded 22 seconds after the restart when Albion attacked straight from their kick-off.
Although a pass was cut out on the edge of the box, it fell for Kamari Doyle to thump an effort into the bottom right corner.
The lead lasted for less than two minutes though as Fletcher Holman pounced on a weak back pass to squeeze a low effort past McGill.
Substitute Caylan Vickers got the ball stuck under his feet before dragging wide from close, with Doyle then having a great opportunity for a second goal when he drove an effort straight at James Storer from ten-yards.
Jacob Slater was next to be denied with arguably Storer’s best save of the evening when the full-back rose to meet Josh Duffus’s lovely cross, but somehow the Wolves keeper got across to palm the header behind.
Despite Albion’s best efforts, they would have to settle for a point and now take on the Blues in the elimination playoffs.
Albion's line-up: McGill, Jackson (Nilsson 81), McConville, Kavanagh, Barrington, Chouchane, Mullins (Vickers 45), Slater, Doyle, Baker-Boaitey (Duffus 66), Flower.
Unused subs: Hall, Albarus.
There is a new format in Premier League 2 this season. After the regular season of 20 match weeks has been completed, the top 16 teams will qualify for a single elimination playoff.
Teams will be drawn against each other based on their league positions, for example the team finishing first will face the team that finished 16th. These will be one-off elimination matches with the higher-seeded team at home.