Doncaster Rovers 2-3 WBA

live text replay


with their ultimate fate on the season completely in their own hands for the second week running, west bromwich albion won a fourth promotion to the premier-league and the right to wage a fifth campaign in england's top-flight next season. this now sees a decade straight - starting with the promotion play-off loss to bolton wanderers in 2001 - in which the baggies have been directly involved in competing for either relegation or promotion.

last week - and prior to the baggies' 1-1 draw with watford - i woke up, as usual, just after 9.00 AM (EST) in order that i should be awake and coherent when the baggies kick-off at around 10.00. i showered, got my coffee and connected to the ALBION RADIO transmission on the club website. i was just in time to catch the regular colour-man (as well as the club's director of publications), dave bowler - and anticipating the baggies imminent return to the top-flight, delivering a lengthy diatribe about the relative pointlessness of competing in the premier league, with its ridiculous financial structure(s), horribly over-paid players, and lack of opportunity for any modest club, such as the albion, to be competitive at top-level anymore.



while making a series of fascinating points, he concluded that - and west bromwich albion aside, for the moment - that the premier league needs a major over-haul. while it has managed to establish itself as the top football competition in the world, it runs the danger of financially, and structurally destroying itself. in a year that saw the first premier league competitor enter financial administration as the direct cost of an FA Cup title and 7th place league finish two years ago - his observations are not only timely but evident.

he went on to point out that alex macliesh is a definite candidate for manager of the year for leading birmingham city to a respectable mid-table finish, illustrating that in the premier-league even genius is very often reduced and limited to nothing more than a kind of relative yet admirable mediocrity.

as a positive tonic to any negative critique of the premier-league - and for anyone who missed it on the midlands' edition of BBC's LATE KICK OFF show of two weeks ago, jeremy peace articulately and with evident intelligence outlined the structure of the club, and explained, in very general terms, what the club's goals might be going into the premier-league:


BBC interview with jeremy peace


this was not a great match, but the baggies score goals and that is what wins them football games. however, i get the impression - and having been to the hawthorns on five different occasions this year (and one away match at swansea) - that this has not been as loved, and possibly not as well respected an albion team as some other sides of the recent past. but then, maybe folklore requires time - and the onset of its psychological aspect, nostalgia - for legend to become manifest? perhaps it's just the nature of humour in the black country character? i don't know...



my visits to the hawthorns and the liberty stadium showed me - and much as i had already surmised - that west brom supporters are among the most loyal, intelligent, knowledgeable and passionate fans in the country. they are also some of the most negative, apprehensive, pessimistic and critical supporters you'll find anywhere. they look back to their various golden eras and revere the names of astle, brown, cunningham, kevan, glidden, richardson, pennington, robson (bryan and bobby), regis, taylor and phillips with a fanatical pride; and although the occasion sometimes few and far between, they know how to celebrate their success's in style. they can also be painfully negative:

"well that was a terrible game of football, wasn't it?"

this might be a typical hawthorns' reaction at the final whistle to one of the best games played in the country that day.

"i think brunt looks like he's just about given up!"

this said about a man who scores every three games and delivered a stunning perfect through-ball for ishmael miller that set up the first goal in the game about which the remark was made.

and nothing makes a west brom supporter more nervous and edgy than the baggies entertaining a one-goal lead.

"i don't like the look of this!" is a quiet and constant utterance heard around the hawthorns when the baggies do have a single-goal lead.



with west brom now unbeaten in 9 games running and automatic promotion to the premier league assured, it's time to put talking comic, black-country misery on hold for a moment and assess the season and speculate about next year.

i actually believe that this is the best west brom side in years. it's the best albion side since i've been following the team, anyway. it's one thing to be a good championship side relying on kevin phillips ability to score 25 goals a season in order to assure success, but this year was a true team effort and the overall quality of the club is at a whole new level altogether.

there is no doubt that chris brunt, robert koren, roman bednar, ishmael miller, scott carson, graham dorrans, abdoulaye meite and perhaps a few others are all better players than the last time that west brom was in the premier league. they have also strengthened the centre-half positions with the addition of gabriel tamas, and have a better defensive foundation than during their last top-flight campaign, as well.



roberto di matteo has proved himself a young, astute, forward-looking, current and up-to-date coach and manager. he inherited a side which, while having intelligently retained a core group of players, saw the new gaffer starting the season at the same disadvantage tony mowbray had ended last campaign with: that is, the long-term injuries to james morrison and ishmael miller; as well as the unresolved suspension of roman bednar which left the baggies playing without either of their top strikers at the outset of the season.

the most notable thing about di matteo, though, and right from the first match, was that he had re-invigorated a number of individual players who had become unhappy or went under-used by tony mowbray. he coaxed a couple of goals - as well as several good games - out of luke moore. robert koren, marek cech, and chris brunt all became integral and important players in the team after each had been linked to moves away from the club. and when the other strikers struggled for scoring form, simon cox came into the first team and scored 5 times in as many matches.

while it was unusual for the albion, di matteo introduced a very successful 4-5-1 playing formation that supplied a very entertaining and successful attack element. it was a very astute adjustment for the gaffer to have made given where the team's all around talent lies.

where tony mowbray had tried the same type of thing with ishmael miller, he abandoned the formation for a standard 4-4-2 with a rotating selection of utility forwards after the young striker was injured and out for the rest of the season. the new gaffer, however, used any striker he had on hand, including luke moore sometimes, in a purely positional role, realizing that the scoring strength he had on the team was - and in a team rich in mid-field talent - going to be as much with the mid-fielders as anywhere.



i think this demonstrated that di matteo seems to know where football and management tactics are going; where tony mowbray was a prisoner of his beliefs and ran the team too much on ideals, form in training, and a commitment to faith in a pure passing game which was sometimes a little one-dimensional and single-minded. this was most clearly illustrated in a league match at home to chelsea last year in which the albion thoroughly controlled the match for the first 20 minutes. with the baggies unable to make anything from their superior possession, however, chelsea scored on their first opportunity to counter and the match ended in a 3 or 4 goal drubbing.

i believe that this albion side will make more out of a full complement of strikers and a good passing game in next year's top-flight competition than it has in the past. what is most desperately needed for them to be a competitive side in the premiership is improved tactics and positioning of the defensive setup. if they can tighten things up, buy at least one more top central defender and a second goalie (in light of dean keily's move into coaching), cut out a significant percentage of mistakes at the back and capitalize on their scoring opportunities, the baggies will find survival in the top-flight at least possible.