Crystal Palace 1-1 WBA

live text replay



as i have said in a previous post (and maybe even more than once): this is the best albion team in years. having already secured promotion, they seem intent on ending the season by making an emphatic claim as to their quality. this was clearly reflected not only in the swaggering, easy win over middlesbrough 8 days ago; but also - and more importantly, in the team selection since their win at doncaster assured them automatic promotion and perhaps a run for the title. however, newcastle won the division a few days later and made the baggies' second place finish in the table a foregone conclusion. but the albion, it seems, have no intention of letting up.

to evidence their commitment to keep their unbeaten streak going, roberto di matteo has stuck with his current preferred personnel: a back four of ried, tamas, olsson and cech; his five man mid-field comprising koren, cox, dorrans, mulumbu and brunt. roman bednar has been the preferred single striker, and only the absence of ishmael miller on the bench was a conspicuous non-selection.

to be fair, the only thing that prevented the albion from winning this one was julian speroni, the palace keeper. it could have been 4 or 5 had the goalie not turned in a really brilliant performance. i mean, there was a moment where he literally willed the ball over the cross-bar from point-blank range off the end of robert koren's boot.

while the baggies were slow to start, by the mid-point of the second-half they were playing very clever control football, and attacking the palace goal at will. speroni's continuous heroics were really all that kept the londoners level, and ultimately with a real chance at victory. deep into injury-time, gabriel tamas cleared a shot off the albion goal-line which would have seen palace snatch the win.



roman bednar's cleverly worked header coming back off the crossbar came at a time when the albion were having long spells of possession, and showing, in very clinical fashion, how effectively they can attack. but just as in their previous meeting earlier in the season at the hawthorns - and despite a much better performance from the baggies on this occasion - the eagles defense was resolute. only a tightly marked gabriel tamas header squeezed home from a graham dorrans corner-kick was able to break through the palace defending and level the score to provide the final outcome.

their intention is clear and to their credit, the baggies want to wrack up their largest ever points total, and the individuals in the squad are still hungry to add to their season goals tally. above all, i think that they want to go into the premier league with a feeling of being in form. the albion are taking advantage of what are essentially open opportunities to play football and get results for the fun of it. roberto di matteo knows that any further successes and ending the season on a high note will only instill confidence going into a premier league campaign.

while i was lucky enough to get actual live TV coverage of this, i still tuned into the ALBION RADIO commentary to see what dave bowler, the club's publications head and ALBION RADIO colour-man - had to say this week. the question was put to him: what division would you prefer to be competing in, the premier league or championship?

to be fair, the question was designed to provoke a response as to the general state of football in england, such as it is. mr. bowler conceded that one really wants to be in the premier league, and from the point of view of being at the outset of a season, this is especially true. we want to believe in the idea of "living the dream" and that our beloved baggies might be able to compete with the likes of manchester united, chelsea and arsenal. but in the end, and as mr. bowler rightly pointed out - and in reference specifically to this idea:

"the trouble is," the albion publications editor explained, "is that it's exactly that: a dream - instead of something that should be a possibility!!!"

the premiership is a league where there are six or seven teams that are able to play at this level in the right way. the rest of the pack stumble around with varying degrees of success and failure at either qualifying for a secondary european competition or settling in and avoiding relegation. this year in the championship, aside from newcastle and the albion, there wasn't a lot - in terms of talent, quality and organization - between the third place and twenty-third place teams. so the championship is the more exciting division to watch, but is limited in the quality of its football.



the football league, in general, is much more competitive. both swansea and leicester city came up from league 1 last year and have competed successfully for a place in the championship top six all year. only a recent slip in form has seen the swans pretty much out of it, while leicester look to have secured a play-off spot.

"and there are people who talk about this like it's a bad thing?!?!" mr. bowler exclaimed.

his point is that people have lost sight of what english football is supposed to be about! the fact that a team like wimbledon, in the 1980s, worked their way up to the top-tier from conference football fairly rapidly, and in 1988 they finished in the top ten as well as defeating liverpool in the FA Cup final. now that's living a dream!

i'm going to be optimistic about the future for the baggies in the premiership. however, i'm not looking forward to celebrating a series of 15th and 16th place finishes and calling it a big success on an ongoing basis. i can only imagine if that became a year after year, long term proposition - as it does for many teams in the premier league - it would start to get on my nerves. i would eventually welcome the prospect of an entertaining championship campaign as opposed to protracted premier league mediocrity.

and these situations are getting to be more frequent and unsustainable. of the teams relegated from the premiership this year, one is direct result of (or, at least the situation severely aggravated by) a points deduction for entering administration. while a second team is working up a plan to avoid the need to enter into a financial administration in order to clear up a £35 million debt. three or four years of spending premier league money and then being relegated is an increasingly perilous proposition.

luckily, the albion isn't run on the idea that staying in the premier league is worth damaging the club over. i think that's partly why the baggies have yet to successfully establish a relationship with the top-tier since the inception of the premier league.



however, i am very hopeful that things will be different this time. the key to the short-term will depend largely on the current central core of players. it will be in the fact that players like chris brunt, marek cech, robert koren, roman bednar, james morrison, ishmael miller, and even graham dorrans will all want to make a decent showing of this in order to keep the team together. for a player like dorrans, it's a chance to see some real success and establish himself as a premier league player. for others, it may be the best chance that their ever going to get at long-term premier league careers. this team wants to make a go of it and has the basis of personnel to do it with.

when i think of the sides coming down from the premier league, and i look at newcastle and west brom already going up, the premiership is probably going to be a bit stronger and the championship a bit weaker next year than they were this. it may even be a further widening of the gap between "first" and "second" division football in england!?!? all i can say at the moment is that i would rate this particular baggies side as being the best team in years. they will at least be competitive with the likes of wigan, wolves, west ham, bolton, blackburn, stoke etc. - and may go on to find that they are even a bit better than that!