First sniff at either end as Blackburn midfielder John Buckley's well-struck right-foot effort is deflected wide for a corner.

But nothing comes of it.

Image source, Rex Features

Both sets of fans in good voice.

One way of keeping warm tonight.

It's very cold at the highest ground in the country.

Image source, Rex Features

The teams have come out, Albion in their famous navy blue and white stripes, Rovers in their change strip of all-yellow.

We've done the pre-match pleasantries.

Steve Bruce has had a warm reception from the home fans.

The Liquidator has been played. The knees are bent.

And tonight's referee John Brooks blows his whistle to get the game under way.

Andy Bayes
BBC Radio Lancashire sports editor

Image source, Getty Images

Back-to-back defeats aren’t something that Blackburn Rovers are used to this season, particularly without scoring in either.

Tony Mowbray’s side haven’t lost a great deal of ground in the promotion race - with results largely going their way on Saturday - and he’ll be keen for his team to rediscover that knack of taking chances, as well as keeping clean sheets.

It’s the division's longest-serving manager against the most recently appointed - but the most experienced.

Almost 1,800 games between them, and both with a realistic opportunity to be back in the Premier League next season.

You can listen to BBC Radio Lancashire commentary on 95.5 & 104.5FM.

New West Bromwich Albion Steve Bruce makes two changes from last Wednesday's 2-0 defeat by Sheffield United for his first home game in charge.

Preston old boy Callum Robinson comes in for Grady Diangana, while midfield man Jayson Molumby takes over from suspended skipper Jake Livermore.

Blackburn make three changes from their 2-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest the same night.

Sam Gallagher, Ryan Nyambe and Joe Rankin-Costello, who replaces the suspended Darragh Lenihan, all return.

Daniel Ayala would have started but he was a late drop-out with a calf injury, so Nyambe shifts to centre-back.

Loan man Deyovaisio Zeefuik, substituted late on at the weekend, is sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Rob Gurney
BBC Radio WM Sport

For those who aren’t seasoned Albion watchers, a quick glance at the Championship table would see the majority of jaws hit the floor.

They’ve gone from top, when they won 4-0 at Cardiff at the end of September, to 9th, now desperately clinging onto hopes of a play-off place, with the second automatic spot a seemingly unbridgeable 13 points away.

The bold, but ultimately-flawed Valerien Ismael experiment has been an extremely expensive failure and at this point, another season in the second tier appears more likely than an immediate return to the 'promised land'.

But new Albion boss Steve Bruce knew what he was taking on when he agreed to succeed Ismael, and he’s got to use all his experience of similar situations to try to improve what, to my eyes anyway, is a mentally fragile, and in some cases, stale, group of players.

Image source, PA Media

As my co-commentator, Baggies’ legend Tony 'Bomber' Brown says to me regularly: "You can’t just turn form on and off like a tap, Rob”. Albion have to emerge from their trough of three wins in 14 Championship games before it’s too late – easier said than done, I know.

Something else that won't be lost on the fans is how Chris Wilder's Middlesbrough are suddenly four points above Albion: the man who was first-choice to come in at The Hawthorns last summer, constructing another promotion campaign after his success at Sheffield United. Owner Guochuan Lai’s decision to veto that appointment looks like another massive mistake with every passing week.

Then you throw into the mix Tony Mowbray’s return tonight. One of the club's most popular ex-managers, who has Blackburn punching above their weight. But he’s already got a 20-goal striker in Ben Brereton Diaz . . . And, as I said to Bruce the other day, what would he give for one of those right now? His wry smile spoke volumes!

If West Bromwich Albion are bang out of form after a run of just one win in nine and league and cup games, Blackburn Rovers aren't going a great deal better.

After clocking up six straight victories in the run-up to Christmas and into the festive period itself, Rovers have won just twice in eight league and cup games since the turn of the year.

Admittedly, they have been hampered by the loss for three games of Ben Brereton Diaz, their Chilean hot shot, whose career has so magically taken off since he got the opportunity to go off and play for the country of his mother's ancestry - and added a third leg to his name.

Image source, Rex Features

He was back on Saturday against Forest when his only appearance in the ref's notebook in the end of match stats was not for a goal - but a booking.

But Rovers, eight points clear of Albion, hope he can tonight spark the victory that would lift them back within two points of second-placed Bournemouth.

Albion do have a man, though, in home debutant Andy Carroll, who can be a right handful.

Once an expensive January recruit himself, at £35m for Liverpool 11 years ago, injuries and a change of management hampered his hopes of hitting the high spots at Anfield.

But he did get his fair share of goals - as Valerien Ismael's last signing has everywhere he's been. More than just a big target man!

Image source, Getty Images

One was at The Hawthorns, on his first visit with Liverpool in a 2-0 win in 2011 - and another, the following season, was perhaps his best remembered.

A last-minute winner against Blackburn, at Ewood Park!

It also has to be remembered that this is not the deadline day arrival's first game at The Hawthorns this season. He was in the Reading side that lost 1-0 to Albion here in December, one of only two home wins the Baggies fans have 'enjoyed' in their past seven matches.

New Albion boss Steve Bruce has had concerns in all outfield departments in preparing for his first home game in charge tonight.

Skipper Jake Livermore starts a four-game ban, following an unsuccessful appeal to overturn the red card which effectively decided Bruce's first game in charge against Sheffield United last Wednesday.

The illness that kept out defensive linchpin Kyle Bartley at Bramall Lane has now been diagnosed as chicken pox - and he is again missing tonight.

Image source, Getty Images

But it's up front where Bruce's problems begun.

With just 34 goals from 30 games, Albion are the lowest scorers in the Championship's top 14. They have not netted at all in their last three and their expensive January recruit Daryl Dike is expected to be sidelined until the end of March with a bad hamstring tear.

Good evening and welcome to The Hawthorns.

It's St Valentine's Day, you know you should really be spending the evening with your loved one. But there's sport on the menu instead.

So pull up a comfy chair, lie back, relax and think of nothing else but football in our company for the next two and a bit hours.

Image source, PA Media

There's the prospect of seeing two gnarled old footballing romantics like Steve Bruce and Tony Mowbray locking managerial horns. However the only red roses on show will be the ones on the Rovers players' shirts.

It also pitches together the top half of the Championship's two most out-of-form teams, both of whom have won just once in their last five league matches. Hardly cause to get the bubbly out!

But I will love it if it's a good passionate game tonight... love it!

Maybe even with a few cards too, it being Valentine's.