bongodaddy's original baggie blog

A Contrast Stark and Clear

2012-01-18T07:46:00.000-08:00

Stoke City F.C. 1-2 WBA

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the baggies cannot seem to win at home. conversely, they are all but unbeatable on the road.

the gaffer doesn't understand it. the players are equally perplexed, and the home supporters are downright miserable. just what is going on at the hawthorns this year?

while everyone who follows english football with any regularity knows that the second year after a promotion is the most difficult, those who count themselves among some of the most intelligent and witty football supporters in the country have found the truth behind this wisdom rather hard to swallow.

since the days when vic buckingham was manager, and with players like ray barlow and ronnie allen in the side, it has always been a mandate at west bromwich albion football club that the team should play an attractive attacking game based on scoring more goals than their opponents. however, the wiser heads in charge of running the club this year have opted for a tactically defensive approach as being more pragmatic in realizing their goals of survival and continued competition in the most prestigious domestic league in the world.

roy hodgson has added real steel to what was sometimes a tentative and mistake prone defence. i don't think anyone would disagree that goalie, ben foster, is a huge improvement on previous starter, scott carson; and defenders, gareth mcauley and craig dawson - in varying partnership with the redoubtable baggies veteran, jonas olsson - are a full cut above anyone who has played at centre-half since the days of john wile. young fullback, billy jones, has shown that he's a first class defender on either side of the pitch, while veterans like stephen reid and nicky shorey have provided a steadying influence in providing cover for attacks down the flanks.

up front, the talent of new striker, shane long, has been apparent since the the outset of the season, and the full range of his game was revealed in the baggies' win over wolves back in october. the irish international has all the qualities needed for successful counter-attacking football, and has even surprised some of the hawthorns faithful with his pace, skill in the air and first-class hold-up play.

unlike the naive but beautiful passing game promoted by tony mowbray, or the raw inexperience of roberto di matteo, hodgson knows that to play in the same league with the likes of manchester united, liverpool, arsenal and chelsea, the most successful style of football will likely be found in good defending paired with quick, incisive counter-attacking. what he has found, however, is that this is of little use when playing at home against footballing contemporaries like wigan, stoke, everton and norwich city who themselves play pretty much the same way.

WBA 1-2 Norwich City F.C.

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nowhere has this been more evident than in the last two matches; a home loss to the canaries, who they beat 0-1 earlier in the season at carrow road, and last weekend's away victory at stoke, where the reverse fixture at the hawthorns produced an undeserved 0-1 win for the visitors.

unlike the free-flowing football with lots of goals that the baggies play when competing in the football league, the gaffer has set the side out to keep its shape and frustrate anyone trying to get a look at goal. in fact, ben foster has, more often than not, had very little to do in terms of spectacular saves, and the well organized defence has seen the side through even without the indispensable jonas olsson marshalling the back-line.

outside of the top five or six sides, the premier league has become a predominantly counter-attacking league. in the early 21st century, the mark of any successful side, whether it's chelsea or birmingham city, is their ability to defend and counter-attack. while the top clubs have the players and individual skill to play a more complete style of football, the second grade premiership sides are having to rely increasingly on their ability to hold out and hit back on the break.

this season, for the baggies and their manager, roy hodgson, the tactics have somewhat backfired. west bromwich albion are keeping pace with what would usually be expected of a recently promoted team, and despite the fan reaction to what has been perceived as "negative football", they look set to survive and will likely be competing in an unprecedented third consecutive premier league campaign next year. however, they have only managed 8 points from home games this year, compared to the 17 they've collected on the road.

only the two manchester clubs, chelsea and spurs have better away records than the baggies.

the inexplicable and perhaps unlucky home results have not gone over well with the home support. when wigan athletic came to the hawthorns in november, things turned ugly and the home side were booed from the field as they went down in defeat to the league's bottom club by a score of 1-2. any other year, their renowned black country wit would have seen them through the tough times, but something has happened to the atmosphere at the hawthorns and perhaps last year's 11th place finish has created unrealistic expectations.

there is no doubt that a gap in perception now exists between the hawthorns faithful and the management. where RH has been adamant that it is a matter of "unlucky results" rather than "form" that has seen the baggies without a home win since beating bolton wanderers on the 19th of november, the supporters are less forgiving and are critical of the football they have been seeing at the hawthorns this season.

"yeah, it's strange," hodgson told the BBC following the victory at stoke, "there seems to be a bit of a hoodoo on us at the hawthorns. i would be happier, to some extent, if we were playing badly or being outplayed and as a result losing matches there, but the everton game, and the wigan game, and the norwich game - three recent games... we've been a little bit unlucky to lose them because we haven't played badly at all..."

at the moment, it would be hard to get the average west brom supporter to agree and make this kind of distinction.

Hard Times at the Hawthorns

2012-01-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

WBA 4-2 Cardiff City F.C.

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i have to admit that i have found it hard to keep up with my blogging since the baggies' home loss to wigan athletic. it seems that we have gone from being some of the best home supporters in the top division of english football to some of the worst.

this has no doubt been brought about by the club's woeful home form in the league. so, and on the tail of yet another home defeat, perhaps the FA Cup would be a welcome distraction to the concerns of the league, and an all too rare chance for simon cox to get a start at his natural striker's position in partnership with peter odemwingie.

the young striker, now in his third season with the albion, took the opportunity to show his quality as a goal-scorer by putting a hat-trick past a cardiff side who themselves are chasing promotion from the championship.

while this was more like a classic albion performance with plenty of goals and a 4-2 score-line, the domestic cup competitions have become so devalued in these days of ridiculous money, that cox' performance still did little to satisfy the home faithful. even scoring three goals against a side with whom the baggies are probably more truly competitive with than any of the top six clubs in their own division, relatively few supporters, or so it would seem, appear convinced that simon cox can play premier league football.

with the focus of the professional game now concentrated almost exclusively on a club's league form - and with the rise of season-ticket culture - the domestic cups are of hugely diminished interest at the higher levels of both the premier and football leagues. in fact, for a competition that used to set attendance records for domestic football in england, some of the bigger clubs attract cup-game crowds only half the size of those for a regular league fixture.

while i hope that his goal-scoring performance is enough to impress the gaffer and get simon cox a place in the starting eleven - for a few games at least - the more vocal of the baggies' support will still judge a cup hat-trick as being of little consequence and will continue to assert that cox still "ay' good enough" to play in the almighty, bloody premier league.

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 1-0 WBA

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this has to be hailed as a brave effort from the albion, and to echo the sentiments of RH following a well disciplined defensive display by the baggies, this was indeed "an honourable defeat".

with the injury list piling up and a wretched home form to deal with, the most recent results are beginning to erode whatever cushion the albion had, coming into the new year, between them and the relegation places. this may very well have been a draw had the baggies not been on the wrong end of a series of recent penalty decisions.

when the ball was played into jermain defoe on the edge of the 6-yard box by a rampaging gareth bale with just over an hour gone, it appeared that this was in the back of everyone's mind. despite having craig dawson and gareth mcauley providing adequate marking for the diminutive striker, the baggies' defenders were momentarily tentative and not giving away a penalty was clearly in dawson's mind. their hesitation allowed defoe just enough time and space to turn and find the corner of the net, just beyond the reach of goalie, ben foster.

in context, it was another loss when at least a point seemed on offer, but the the team's overall defensive display and disciplined shape was definitely something positive to cling to, and indicates how difficult it will continue to be to beat the baggies away from the hawthorns.

WBA 0-1 Everton F.C.

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i'm sure that i'm not the only football fan who felt like he had been used after this dismal new year's display.

who could possibly have benefited from a noon kick-off on new year's day?

this was just a bad idea all around. i'm sure that anyone who was unfortunate enough to have paid the £40 ticket price would've been happier with a late kick-off rather than having to be at the hawthorns three hours earlier than usual - and most certainly on the day after new year's eve!

nor was it of any convenience for me having to wake up at 6.30 AM for a 7 AM kick-off.

the truth is that the premier league - and to a lesser extent football in general - will ever increasingly have to do the bidding of skySPORTS and its insatiable appetite for turning football into TV money.

not only are we at the time of year when fixtures traditionally come thick and fast, but with upcoming FA Cup games to be played on the weekend, the premier league obviously feels that it has to squeeze in this extra set of matches to make up for what it perceives as upcoming lost TV revenues.

i have to admit at the excitement i first felt when, 20 seasons ago, english football went live on TV here in north america. it was one of those things i could only have dreamed about as a kid. however, i'm beginning to feel like the dream is over, and that life in the premier league is more like having to live with a miserable psychological condition than watching a football competition.

for the baggies, this was a total disaster. to an already depleted side with at least two long-term injuries, we can now count club captain, chris brunt, who somehow managed to fracture his ankle in stoppage time and will be out for 8-10 weeks.

to add insult to injury, the baggies gave up an 87th minute goal to toffees' substitute, victor anichebe.

this was just terrible football all around and an insult to everyone who made the effort... a real disgrace!

Two Wins and a Draw...

2011-12-21T08:46:00.001-08:00

WBA 0-0 Manchester City F.C.

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if one could accurately judge the performance of a football team based on what that club's supporters have to say, a quick glance at the posts in any online forum, or casual listening to post-match radio phone-ins dealing with west bromwich albion football club would suggest a wild inconsistency in quality of play over the past 6 weeks.

nothing could be further from the truth.

while results may have been erratic, and perhaps a bit unlucky, roy hodgson's west brom side has been consistently delivering good on-field performances since their win at home against bolton. even the subsequent home loss to spurs could be counted as a good footballing performance and the 3-1 scoreline certainly flattered the visitors on the day. the difficulty is in getting the average supporter (or at least, the average online poster) to believe in anything but results, and the derision aimed at the manager, chairman and certain individual players is all too often quite unbelievable.

Newcastle United F.C. 2-3 WBA

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after having listened to the baggies' home loss to wigan, i could hardly believe it when roy hodgson appeared on TV saying that he had no complaints about the team's performance and if they continue to play to this level they will certainly start to get results. it turned out over the next few weeks to be true. roy hodgson's baggies have started to get results.

however, at the time this sounded quite incredible and was completely at odds with what i had just heard online through the ALBION RADIO transmission on the club's website. it had portrayed the baggies' home fixture against premier league strugglers, wigan athletic, as tragic and a terrible game of football on all counts. indeed, it was made to sound so bad that both chris hall and dave bowler spent much of the match decrying the quality of the football rather than offering a description of the action.

"as you can tell," mr. bowler addressed the listening audience following a lengthy digression in the commentary, "there ay' much going on 'ere!"

however, when viewed as a TV broadcast later on that evening, it was a thoroughly engaging match with both teams playing well through the midfield and exhibiting fine displays of individual defending. most notable was the work of wigan defender, gary caldwell, and the goalkeeping of ali al-habsi.

what is apparent from reading posts made in online fan forums is how easy it is to forcefully state a harsh, critical and judgmental opinion. positive and measured speculation as to how the side might improve its play or what the team might be missing in terms of tactics, team selection and/or transfer goals is much more difficult. when result and form aren't meeting supporter expectation, finding a scapegoat is always the first order of business.

Blackburn Rovers F.C. 1-2 WBA

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i don't really know what the baggies' supporters expect realistically, but with most of the albion's points coming away from home, i get the idea that the atmosphere at the hawthorns can get unpleasant pretty quickly these days. the worst example being the aforementioned match against a visiting wigan athletic side.

whatever the case, the baggies have ended 2011 with three excellent results that leave them at 9th in the table and with a mid-season haul of 22 points. in a year that 36-38 points will probably be enough to secure survival - and barring a protracted run of completely disastrous results - the albion will almost certainly be playing top-flight football again next year. i can't understand what all the fuss is about!!!

the truth is, that the style of football that the baggies are playing at the moment is based on the two solid lines of four defenders and mid-fielders holding their shape, and two pacey forwards to produce the counter attack. this will cause the attacking team to have to play the ball wide as their only option coming forward, and any move to play through the middle or put in a cross is quickly cut out. the effectiveness of this style of play was best illustrated in the last match against newcastle, where the winning goal seemed to appear out of absolutely nothing and completely against the run of play.

likewise, the baggies' first half display of single-minded and resolute defending against a frighteningly good manchester city team was nothing short of brilliant, and left west brom with the very real possibility of nicking a win late on rather than sharing the points as they eventually did.

this is fine for away games and has a general use against superior opposition (like manchester city), but they are going to run into trouble playing this way at home against their contemporaries in the bottom-half of the table; and that's exactly what has happened. the gaffer probably needs to rethink how the albion play at the hawthorns. i think it's the most pressing issue for hodgson and his management staff to sort out going into 2012.

like anyone, i'd love to see an improvement on the current home form and would readily welcome some new players to come in and strengthen the squad during the january transfer window. i do have faith that roy hodgson knows what he's doing in that respect and can only hope he's given the resource and leeway to follow through.

WBA 1-2 Wigan Athletic F.C.

2011-12-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

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"what are we doing in the same division as manchester city? that's what i'd like to know."

so said dave bowler, the club's head of publication as he rhetorically posed the all important question that, for him, expressed his personal frustration with the state of the albion and results just at the minute.

there was a generalized and ugly booing of the team, both at the introduction of two late albion substitutions; and, as the team came off the field, having suffered yet another hard-fought and unlucky home loss. a bad buzz pervaded the atmosphere at the hawthorns from before the kick-off and was palpable from as far as three-thousand miles away. i know. i could feel it!

even chris hall and dave bowler, who do the audio commentary for the club's ALBION RADIO transmission were negatively affected. the two commentators spent much of the game talking up what a poor match it was and amateurishly allowed their description of the action to drift and ramble. the situation at the hawthorns sounded nothing less than dire, and they gave the impression that we were listening to some really poor football.

"the smethwick is just about empty," bowler noted rather drearily, towards the end of transmission, "and large of sections of the east stand have already gone..."

it truly sounded abject and desperate. from the general reaction one might have assumed that the visitors were well in front and leading by two or three goals. that's how hopeless it was made to sound.

the truth of the matter is that is was a single goal's difference and the baggies did just about everything that was in their power to make it up. in the second-half of the match, and barring the wigan penalty, the baggies controlled the ball and dictated the play quite comprehensively. they laid absolute siege to the wigan goal and just kept coming. it was only the brilliance of the latics goalie, ali al-habsi, and the determined defending of gary caldwell that ultimately kept the albion attack at bay.

yet again, the albion didn't get any important calls go their way, as graham dorrans was booked for diving in the 87th minutes. truly, it was hard to tell if it really was a penalty, because while the contact was clearly much less than dorrans fall would have merited, any contact in this situation would have been a legitimate penalty call and the baggies probably deserved it.

this was one of the most upsetting days in the entire time i have been a west brom supporter. for sure, there have been some heartbreaking disappointments on the trail of being an albion fan this last ten years. but there have been some great and heroic moments of success too. some supporters seem to have forgotten that we were the league's unquestionable form team into october last year. then we hit the blackpool away fixture and went 13 matches (if i remember correctly) without a win.

i remember how some poor idiots were walking out on wolves at home last year. with the baggies one-nil down since the first half, and with 4 minutes injury time still to play, some were long gone and halfway back to dudley when carlos vela scored the injury time goal that earned a draw and kicked-off an eight game undefeated run of form that saw the baggies take points in ten out of eleven matches to end their season.

have these supporters really forgotten how exciting that was? do they remember how, on the last day, when - and 3-0 down to newcastle - we were just getting ready to pat ourselves on the back for a 14th or 15th place finish, somen tchoyi scored a stunning ten-minute hat-trick at st. james park that saw us finish 11th in the table?

and the voices of dissent have returned... singing the nostalgic praise of ex-managers while saying that roy hodgson has "lost the plot" and eternally levelling critical assertions as to jeremy peace's lack of ambition.

for my money, the doom-sayers are missing the bigger picture and don't see that every year for the past decade, the baggies have either been involved in battles for promotion to the premier league or relegation to the championship (formerly called the "second division" and, after that, "league 1") with unquestionable - albeit incremental - improvement to squad and management team every year.

but albion fans are impatient at the moment and they want the success that they perceive other clubs as achieving while we lag behind again, possibly battling relegation. would you really like to be hull city now? they came up from the championship with us for the 08-09 season and were in the premier league for two years... trouble is, they spent three years worth of top-flight wages and transfer fees in doing it. going back down again was not easy, and they had to settle for a mediocre mid-table finish in english football's second-tier last year.

would one really classify the thuggery they serve up at the britannia stadium that gets passed off as football as "success"?

you can keep it, mate!

just a few miles across town and with a team that's still probably going to finish solidly mid-table, aston villa fans are having the most miserable time this season. they are so upset with the club that they say they are actually hoping for bad results so that they might get rid of an unpopular manager. even on days when the villa win, there are endless callers on the BBC WM football phone-in saying they are villa supporters and expressing how angry they are at not being in the top six, not playing the kind of football that they want to see, and being managed by someone who is simply not welcome.

judging by the reactions from west brom supporters, there was something like a mass hallucination at the hawthorns last saturday. where many baggies fans seem to have seen an unspeakably horrible performance by their team, a number of us (including the gaffer) saw a good performance in an absorbing, competitive game of football with a disappointing result.

the premier league can do terrible things to the soul of a football club.

QPR 1-1 WBA

2011-12-04T22:31:00.000-08:00

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while the baggies have what would regularly be thought of as three "winnable" league fixtures coming up, i was wary of travelling to loftus road and thought about what happened last time we went there.

it was a dismal performance in the championship and the baggies deservedly lost by a score of 3-1. the lone albion goal being a late consolation by chris brunt in a game they were otherwise not really in at all.

considering what a difficult place to go loftus road can be - and has been over the years - i thought that a draw would be a good result. with the next match being wigan at home, followed by a trip to blackburn away, this is probably the most difficult of the three fixtures and a single point on a visit to west london would be OK. with a potential 9 points on offer, realistically, five points from the three games would probably be a decent return for their efforts.

to be fair, the baggies were second best on the day. while the teams were fairly even in overall performance, numbers would suggest that it was albion who created the better scoring chances. however, the londoners held a much higher percentage of possession but did not make the most of their superiority in time with the football. similarly, the baggies were no better at taking advantage of their opportunities than rangers were at creating them.

the problem that west brom are facing right now is that they are going to have to figure out what to do now that zoltan gera is out for the season. gera was exactly what was missing in the team, given the way in which the season started, and his inclusion in the side was immediate and obvious. the hungarian was superb at linking the midfield and striker(s) and his going out injured has left a massive gap, which will call for roy hodgson to rethink both how the baggies need to play, as well as putting his mind to making at least one significant incoming deal during the january transfer window.

while an away draw is never a bad result, it puts pressure on the baggies to win when wigan athletic come to the hawthorns next week. nontheless, this was a tactically good game where the albion were able to dominate in a lot of statistical categories (shots on goal, corner kicks etc.) while having less of the football then their opponent. one of the hallmarks of a roy hodgson side is the quality of economy. he gets his teams to perform well through good defending and concise movement going into attack without a lot of over elaboration.

coming off the successful run at the end of last season the gaffer was very focussed on improving the albion defensively going into the season. he managed to improve the goalkeeping position by bringing in ben foster from birmingham city, and gareth mcauley has certainly been one of the few stand-out centre-halfs to play at the hawthorns in the last few years.

the secret of success for the baggies is going to be in how well their strikers do. so far, only shane long had been scoring regularly and this lack of goals has somewhat negated the improvements that have been made to the team's defence. however, the albion goal suggested that the long/odemwingie partnership might be starting to gel and how well the pair do over the next few weeks will be crucial in both the development of the team and how it will affect results on the season.

whatever else, this was a well organized performance by the baggies, and would suggest that both rangers and the albion will be among the survivors of this competition when the final whistle is blown on the 13th of may, 2012.

WBA 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

2011-12-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

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this match represented the extent to which the barclay's premier league can be cruel for those who have yet to establish themselves as regulars in the competition. while the final scoreline was testament to the individual skills in the tottenham side, it was flattering to the londoners and left me feeling much like i did after last season's early 1-0 loss at anfield. how can a team play this well and still get beaten?

so far this season, the baggies have made a habit of scoring goals before the game has had any chance to settle, and this encounter with spurs was no different. on pretty much the first attack of the match, youssouf mulumbu opened his account for the season with a goal just on 9 minutes. finding space between two tottenham central defenders - and directly in front of goal - the congolese midfielder rose to meet stephen reid's brilliantly placed cross from deep on the right wing and headed the albion into the lead with spurs keeper, brad friedel, left with no chance.

with 21 minutes of the match gone, disaster struck for the albion as zoltan gera, who had been instrumental in the first goal, turned awkwardly while chasing a ball deep in spurs' half and badly injured his knee. subsequent tests showed that it was serious enough an injury that the hungarian international won't be back this season, to the huge disappointment of baggies supporters everywhere. over the three games he had played since returning to the hawthorns, he has formed the best partnership of anyone yet with striker shane long, and will have to be considered a catastrophic miss to the team.

despite being the better side right through the first half there were at least two game changing decisions that went against the baggies in the first half hour. the first, and perhaps most important of these decisions, was a penalty call that helped put spurs on even terms at 1-1.

i'm not sure how much there was in the challenge, but nicky shorey was adjudged to have brought down aaron lennon in the box. emmanuel adabayor stepped up and delivered what was a really poor spot-kick which was initially saved by ben foster. however, the albion goalie wasn't able to get up quickly enough, nor get quite enough of the ball, to keep out adabayor's follow up.

it was harsh not only on the baggies, but i found it hard to tell if the foul was for a high arm or for an incidental trip. in fact, after having viewed the replay, it was hard to tell whether shorey had committed a foul at all. in addition, there was precious little difference between this incident and jerome thomas going down in the spurs' penalty area on a run that had tottenham defender, kyle walker, similarly turned and beaten ten minutes later, but which wasn't called.

perhaps the most contentious moment of the match, for me, was when brad friedel, after having pulled down a high looping ball coming in at goal - appeared to have turned in and walked the ball over the line. the referee signalled that it was a goal and a slow buzz started to mount around the hawthorns, as it was pretty obvious that the spurs' keeper, while trying to avoid the challenge of gareth mcauley, had indeed taken the ball over the line. for a moment everyone thought that the baggies had gone back into the lead. but the score was chalked off and the breaking cheers died down quickly when the ref deferred to the linesman who had signalled for a foul by mcauley on friedel. however, it wasn't apparent that the american keeper had been fouled, and the linesman's call seemed late in coming.

what i found interesting was how this passage of play - and its obvious controversy - was left out of any highlights that i encountered both on TV and online. nor was it mentioned on any of the radio news i listened to or any of the text reports i read.

while the baggies were the better team over the first 50 minutes, and simon cox probably should have scored in around the 51st minute from a free header in front of goal, tottenham responded immediately and dominated the attacking play from then on out.

jermain defoe made the first of a pair of dazzling solo runs from the middle of the park to cause havoc for the albion backline. despite having to take the ball to the bi-line after being driven wide and away from goal by the albion defenders, the diminutive striker's pace and skill pulled ben foster completely out of position, and if he'd been able to pull the ball back for a team-mate inside the box, tottenham would've almost certainly scored.

to their credit, the baggies defended well and with 9 minutes left to go, it was distinctly beginning to feel like a draw.

however, in the 81st minute jermain defoe made a second solo run out of midfield and with jonas olsson backing off, trying not to give the tottenham striker any room to shoot, defoe found the extra yard he needed by cutting a step to the inside just at the top of the box. the pacey striker finished with a low and accurate long-range strike which went just beyond the reach of ben foster to score what would ultimately be the winning goal.

emmanuel adabayor scored a somewhat scruffy late goal on the counter-attack to give the scoreline its gloss.

one of the troubles with playing in the premier league is that the albion can play as well as this and still not get a result. this is the third match of the season against top 5 opposition where it could be said that the baggies will probably play worse than this in a few matches this season and still manage to take all 3 points. it's all too common a feature of life in the top-flight for west bromwich albion.

i am anxious to see how roy hadgson manages the situation with zoltan gera gone - and especially with a critical run of three matches coming up, starting with a visit to loftus road on saturday. once again, the veteran manager has both need and opportunity to show that he knows how to earn his money.

WBA 2-1 Bolton Wanderers F.C.

2011-11-20T21:05:00.000-08:00

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i am going to have no trouble this week writing about how well the baggies played last saturday; nor will i find it difficult to credit the character and skill of shane long either. the young republic of ireland international made a heroic return to the albion first team a full two weeks ahead of the expected time frame, as well as scoring the winning goal.

in truth, there were any number of players in the side which played against bolton who could have been given the man of the match award. while long was truly heroic in coming back from what is generally a six week injury in just four weeks, nicky shorey played what was by far and away his best game since coming to the club and both centre-halfs were brilliant. youssouf mulumbu and jerome thomas were both back in form. chris brunt has evolved into the most cultured of players, now being the team's most senior member and club captain. stephen reid played an extremely solid game at right back and one can only hail the return of zoltan gera as a revelation.

the baggies haven't played anything like this since the opening games against manchester united and chelsea, and this was even better football than either of those two performances. especially the second-half, where we finally saw the possession and passing of a roberto di matteo or tony mowbray team infused with the economy, steel, defending and counter-attack of a roy hodgson side.

only time will tell, but this may have been a real turning point in the season. it might just have determined whether the baggies spend the rest of the campaign moving steadily, and in workman-like fashion, towards a mid-table finish, or whether they end up desperately battling against falling into the bottom three. the quality of this performance would suggest a scenario more in line with the former than the latter.

since the opening couple of matches against two genuine premier league giants, the baggies have been uneven and have played a very one dimensional style of football. that is, they have allowed teams to have possession, defended from midfield and increasingly pushed up from the back to force counter-attack opportunities. this tactic was practiced to great success against wolves and the villa, but was of little use against the likes of liverpool and arsenal.

the first order of business going into the season was to improve the side defensively. roy hodgson is known for producing very solid teams who are difficult to break down. after all, if your opponents don't score they're going to have a hard time winning games against you, aren't they?

under roy hodgson, a team has to learn how to defend and counter-attack efficiently.

the trouble has been that in adapting to the gaffer's style of football the baggies seemed to have committed to working on this pressing defence/counter-attacking system to the exclusion of anything else. this meant almost nothing but long balls cleared from the back that depend on shane long's ability at running the channels, holding the ball up or (with no other option) looking for a crack at goal. gone was the pretty and precise passing game that the baggies have been known for since the days of ronnie allen, ray barlow, don howe and bobby robson. albion supporters have come to have certain basic expectations, and win, lose or draw, hard tackling "long-ball" has never gone over well at the hawthorns.

the trotters started out brightly enough, signalling their intention to take the game to the albion by going straight into attack. but with just 15 minutes of the match gone, and the baggies meeting the lancashire clubs enterprise with resolute defending, zoltan gera beat the off-side trap putting jerome thomas through on goal. the albion left-winger went wide forcing the bolton keeper, jussi jaaskelainen, out of position and finished the move by putting the ball into an empty net.

however, inside of five minutes and in a near carbon-copy of what became a questionable and contentious call in their home game with liverpool, thomas was adjudged to have taken down fabrice muamba just inside the baggies' penalty area, giving ivan klasnic the opportunity to level the score at 1-1.

with west brom having a slight edge in terms of possession at the half and the game poised for a competitive second period, the baggies came back to take complete control of the match from here on out. in fact, the final 2-1 scoreline was in no way indicative of how one-sided the second-half really was.

the quality of the bolton defenders was evident from early on. in one of the first really dangerous attacking opportunities of the game jerome thomas sent shane long through on goal. the albion striker looked almost certain to get a proper crack on target but was thwarted by a perfectly time last ditch tackle made by a desperately back-tracking gary cahill. in truth, the baggies could've won this one by two or three goals save for the excellent work of jaaskelainen and the bolton defence.

the baggies finally made the breakthrough that put them on top 10 minutes into the second half. with bolton increasingly on the back foot, chris brunt spread the play with a cross-field pass to thomas, who held the ball up on the edge of the bolton penalty area just long enough for nicky shorey to find space in behind him. the albion left-back, returning to the starting eleven after several weeks out of the side, delivered a perfect cross for the athletic long to beat his marker in the air and head albion into the lead.

the next half hour saw the baggies playing football of the highest order, keeping the ball and always threatening. the trotters didn't see much of the play nor any real opportunity to threaten ben foster in the albion goal.

what roy hodgson has done is very simple. he's got everybody on the team performing fundamental defensive duties that they did not attend to under the last two managers. he has got both james morrison and chris brunt moving into deep defensive positions, winning and playing more balls out of the back. he's taught youssouf mulumbu where to set himself up and how to defend on set-plays - always a weakness for the congolese midfielder in the past; and in gareth mcauley he's found the centre-half that the albion have needed to play alongside jonas olsson.

the only problem is that the whole thing has required shane long leading the line to make it work. peter odemwingie has not found anything like the form of which he's capable; simon cox hasn't been given enough opportunity to play; and neither marc-antoine fortune nor roman bednar seem to be in the gaffer's plans. this leaves the enigmatic somen tchoyi as the only candidate to lead the line in the case of long being injured, and it is unlikely that there'll be any action during the january transfer window.

now that we've seen what kind of football the baggies should be playing, we can only hope that they continue to do so. this was an excellent performance all around.

The Big Teams...

2011-11-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

Arsenal F.C. 3-0 WBA

match text commentary

with this away match to the now high-flying arsenal - and the currently unstoppable robin van persie - the baggies completed their first set of matches against the traditional "big-four" clubs of english football. while this was a source for west brom picking up important points last year, it has become apparent that this year's challenge is to get results from sides with whom they will be in more direct competition in battling for top-flight survival.

while the baggies were poor at home to liverpool, they were only a little better playing away to the north londoners. however, it was all of small consequence and only certain individual performances gave them any reason to take heart from this encounter. arsenal are absolutely rampant at the moment, and nothing reflects this better than the fact that robin van persie has scored 28 times in the last 27 matches.

again, the baggies showed how bereft of ideas they are without shane long, and perhaps just how dependent they are, at the moment, on the injured striker. i could see from being at the wolves game just how much of the way that roy hodgson has them playing is reliant on long leading the line. without him, it's all defending and playing the ball out from the back. without long in the side, no one is making the ball stick up front and the forwards are getting isolated from the play. it is the young irish international's running of the channels and ability to hold up the ball that creates opportunity for the baggies' counter-attack.

while most of us could probably see it early on, it has become evident since even the away fixture to norwich city, that the baggies need to find another way to play.

this is all the more true with shane long out for another two or three weeks.

WBA 0-2 Liverpool F.C.

match text commentary

not a big surprise, but after their two excellent derby wins against wolves and aston villa, the albion really had nothing to offer and save for one - mayber two - good passages of play, all the good work and momentum of the derby weekends came completely undone against the world famous merseysiders.

the albion weren't expected to win, or even draw this game, but it was pretty dismal and uninspired football and not worhy of a roy hodgson team, regardless of the circumstances. there were, however, more than a few questionable calls from referee, lee mason, not the least of which was a controversial penalty against jerome thomas early in the match which allowed charlie adam to put the merseysiders one-nil up and set the tone for the rest of the game.

while it was generally acknowledged a soft penalty by one and all, it was by no means the worst call (or non-call) of the match. liverpool were allowed to handle the ball perhaps eight or ten times in the second-half without being called for a foul.

be that as it may, there is no point dwelling on these games. we can only hope tht roy hodgson has got something figured out for the upcoming home fixture with bolton.

so far, we still haven't seen a lot of the good passing football for which the albion has always been known - and has been the cornerstone of their success these past few seasons. with the squad that he's got right at the moment, the gaffer would probably be well advised to get the team more focussed on possession, playing the ball through the midfield, looking to stretch the play and getting players like james morrison, graham dorrans, youssouf mulumbu and zoltan gera more involved in attack.

other than that, all we can hope for is shane long's quick return to the team.

Aston Villa F.C. 1-2 WBA

2011-10-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

with only 2600 tickets allotted to the supporters of west bromwich albion football club for an away day at villa park, i travelled to england knowing that i would not be attending this particular derby. even as a membership subscriber to the club's ticket scheme, i was not given a chance to buy a ticket.

this was, in fact, the first match that i have missed following in real time either through listening to online, watching on TV or attending live - and that includes all major competitions - in over four years.

on my second trip, two seasons ago and going for promotion in the championship, i saw the baggies play three times at home and once away to swansea, all in the space of two weeks. the match at liberty stadium was won 0-2, on a penalty by graham dorrans and a late goal by ishmael miller and all but clinched automatic promotion for the baggies. it was a match that was highly symbolic of the albion's success that year and a defining moment of the season. i remember the experience vividly... how time stood still for a moment as miller deftly cut back around swans goalie, dorus de vries, and fired home to emphasize the victory.

what i don't remember is having any particular difficulty in obtaining a ticket for the game.

this year - and with both teams in the almighty, bloody premier league - it was reported that the same trip to south wales was sold-out as 3000 baggies supporters travelled to the liberty stadium to witness their team's worst performance of the season to date, as the baggies conceded three goals and dropped all three points.

knowing that the swansea trip had been sold-out, i knew i would have to be online the moment that the ticket office opened if i was to get a ticket for the villa. however, after finding out that tickets would be available to season-ticket holders for a full 9 days before i would get a crack at it, i was not hopeful. especially after i learned (much to my chagrin) that only 2600 tickets were going to be made available to travelling away supporters.

in any case, on the day i woke myself up at 4 AM EST in order that i would be online as soon as the ticket office opened, and whatever tickets might still be available were scheduled to be released for purchase by those with club membership, like myself. this also coincided with tickets to the home game with liverpool going on sale to both season-ticket and membership subscribers. i logged into my account, clicked on the BUY TICKETS tab, which delivered me to the EVENTS SCHEDULE page from where one makes their selection and proceeds to CHECK-OUT to complete their purchase.

however, there was no link posted to tickets for aston villa (away). there were links to tickets for the bus trip from the hawthorns to villa park and the upcoming home match with liverpool, but nothing for the ticket i wanted. i sat for a few minutes, refreshed the page and waited for a link to appear. ultimately, it never did and i went back to bed knowing that i was not going to get an away ticket for the match against the villa.

by the time i woke-up again at 8.30-9.00, a link to tickets for the villa game had appeared on the EVENT SCHEDULE, but this only led to a message saying that the match was sold-out.

what is really bugging me at this point, is that villa park holds 42000 some-odd, while liberty stadium just barely scratches a capacity of 20000. how had there been 3000 tickets made available for a match in south wales and only 2600 for a game to be played barely four miles away? on top of that, villa's attendance is down by an average of 3000 seats per match this season. this is a loss of about 10% of their regular home support and i thought west brom would have at least 5000 spots allotted.

while i will never know the truth, it turns out that the villa is not particularly interested in accommodating away supporters.

for example, there is no real "away" end at villa park. visiting opposition supporters are shunted into two sections in a corner between the doug ellis and north stands, facilitating cut-price tickets to home supporters in the lower tiers of the north stand and ensuring that there is exclusively home support behind both goals. while the smethwick end at the hawthorns is shared, it is a significantly smaller stadium and visiting supporters are, in fact, given a traditional space behind the goal. under the present set-up, the smethwick can accommodate just over 2500 away supporters for regular league matches.

so, while there were plenty of tickets still available to the general public in the "home" sections of villa park on the day of the match, the two "away" sections were listed on the villa website as "0% availability". i'm sure there were more than one or two baggies who zipped up their jackets to conceal their shirts, hid their scarves under their coats and bought tickets to sit in hostile territory, but that is something i just wouldn't think to do.

in other words, i wasn't about to travel to birmingham without a ticket. neither would i have wanted to buy a ticket that would necessitate me concealing the fact that i am a west bromwich albion supporter, might put me at risk of being denied entrance or possibly even removed from the ground. not to mention having to sit in a section of the stadium with people i don't want to be with!

having promised myself that i would miss no opportunity to watch live football during my time in england, i had already implemented a contingency plan and bought a ticket to watch cardiff city at home to barnsley. however - and no matter how hard i try - i do not like cardiff city football club, and barnsley are only remembered with some faint and long past fondness on my part for having beaten liverpool in the quarter-finals of the FA CUP a few seasons back. i was hoping that with michael chopra gone i wouldn't hate the bluebirds as i once did. while this was indeed the case, i could still find no real sympathy with them, and i wish i had stayed in chilcompton and listened to the villa game on the ALBION RADIO. but then, i can stay at home in canada to do that - and watch it on TV too!

with the bright, blazing mid-afternoon sun at cardiff city stadium uncomfortably in my eyes and half-time just set upon us, i heard the first news of the albion/villa match announced on the PA system along with other scores of the day:

"aston villa 1, west bromwich albion 1..."

i clenched my fist and stabbed covertly at the air.

"yes!!!" i hissed to myself.

with the score 5-2 and just going into injury time, i decided i'd get a head start and see if i couldn't catch the 5.30 train from cardiff central.

i saw the third barnsley goal on the TV screen by the burger and pies stand.

that is surely that, i thought to myself, and hustled outside back in the direction i had come from.

i ran up the stairs onto the platform at grangetown and just barely made the train back to cardiff central where i caught the 5.30 going in the direction of bristol temple meads. i settled into my seat and called my mother on the cell phone to say that i had managed to get the early train and would be at bath spa within about an hour and a half.

"west brom won!!!" she said excitedly in answering, "west brom won!!! i just heard it on the news."

i was stunned by what my mother was trying to tell me. her excitement had taken me aback and i was almost speechless.

"that's great... wow... that's the best news all day... oh, that's just so great!!!"

when i got off the phone i smiled to myself and kicked at the floor to emphasize my joy at hearing that yet another old hoodoo had been dispelled and fallen by the wayside.

"BAGGIES!!!" i could only just contain myself.

i was happy enough in the moment knowing that i would see it on MATCH OF THE DAY.

it turned out to be a great day for the baggies despite the loss of shane long with a speculative knee injury that might see the young striker out for as much as six weeks. it was a dirty game played by the villa, and manager, alex mcleish, had told his defenders to get out and intimidate the opposition... hurt them, so to speak. alan hutton's tackle on long was shamelessly brutal football by today's standards and could easily have been justified a red card.

hutton wasn't even warned. however, there was an incident away from the play in the villa penalty area that saw villa midfielder, chris herd, dismissed for a stomp on jonas olsson. the baggies had a man advantage and a penalty. albion troubles with penalty kicks continued, as captain, chris brunt - normally a penalty taker of the highest order but having a poor run of form as of late - sliced the ball yards wide of the mark, wasting albion's first opportunity to equalize.

luckily, the baggies captain made up for it only minutes later with a perfectly delivered corner kick that saw jonas olsson heading the ball into the villa goal for honours even at the half; and another chris brunt corner kick in the 57th minute produced the opportunity for paul scharner to smash home the winner.

i've been to st. andrews to watch blues play. i've also bought tickets for and been to walsall, brentford, millwall, swansea, leicester city, bath city, yeovil town and bristol city. i was even at the old highbury stadium and stamford bridge in 1976 and made a single trip to the old wembley for an international friendly in 1974. while there are more than one or two of these experiences that have left me cold and without any feeling for the clubs involved, cardiff city was a low-point and the first time i have ever left a football ground before the final whistle.

travelling to see the baggies play in the championship two seasons ago was great fun. i saw them play six games in two visits, including the away match at swansea. not to mention that i could have made it to a seventh game if i had been enterprising enough to make the twelve hour return train journey to middlesbrough and back. truthfully, and with west brom now in the premier league, the championship provides much better opportunity for someone travelling from abroad with the intention of supporting their favourite football team live at the stadium.

i returned to canada too late (by just a few hours in fact) of even seeing the aston villa game repeated on TV and have only seen the footage offered on MATCH OF THE DAY and the 10 minute highlight video on the baggies website.

i am still fuming about this, and i probably won't get over it until my next trip to england sometime later in the new year. in my frustration, i have also promised myself that anyone seen wearing an aston villa jersey is going to get a hassle for it. even though it's not really my style, any villa supporter who crosses my path on this side of the atlantic will leave my presence understanding more about the historical animosity between their club and mine.

while i am thankful that the premier league has given us live TV coverage and repeats of all top-flight matches played over any given weekend, i shall have to wait until my beloved baggies are once again established as a major force in the top-flight and competitive european games have returned to the hawthorns on a regular basis before they'll be playing enough football for my convenience.

i won't be expecting that to happen too soon. i guess i can always hope for a cup run... a good home draw? hey, you never know!!

until then - and if you live in toronto and support the villa - you better stay out of my f**king way!!!

WBA 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

2011-10-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

this was sweet fare for the hawthorns home crowd, and the first home win of the season.

while this was my first trip to the hawthorns this year - and my eighth visit in the last three seasons - it was, without a doubt, the most electric atmosphere i have yet encountered when attending football at the hawthorns. for the first time i could really feel what being in the premier league actually means for a club like west bromwich albion.

i am not always a fan of the top-flight and how it has created such a huge gap between the top four or five clubs and everyone else, but i have to admit that there is a level of intensity to being in the premier league that one cannot ignore. competing in the top-flight lends you a special status as every week you are seen on TV and known to football fans all over the world. it is a league where every game is of international importance - and for the baggies, they don't come more important than this one.

thankfully, roy hodgson has wisely continued to ignore all the blather about tactical formation and did just what he should have: field the most in-form individual players - those who are best adapted to the gaffer's system and those who understand his footballing vision.

all in all hodgson made four changes from the team that had drawn away to sunderland and home to fulham before the international break. nicky shorey - being off-form as of late, was replaced by billy jones at left-back. graham dorrans, james morrison and peter odemwingie were all on the bench, as somen tchoyi, jerome thomas and paul scharner all took a place in the starting eleven.

wolves started the match with a couple of incisive attacks down the albion flanks, testing albion goalie, ben foster, early on and forcing a finger-tip save that flashed across the face of the baggies goal on a shot from adam hammill. the wolves midfielder would have a similar and even better chance in the second half which would again be saved by foster and equally in similar fashion. however - and with hodgson's genius for defense and counter-attack - the more wolves pressed the baggies back line, the more opportunity opened up for the albion through the excellent forward play of shane long.

the republic of ireland international chased balls down the wings with a pace that surprised even the hawthorns faithful. his running of the channels was excellent and the young striker terrorized both wolves centre-backs, roger johnson and cristophe berra, all afternoon. he was confident on the ball and the quality of his hold-up play was evident from early on.

long served an early warning of intent when he took a long ball on the centre-line cleared from the back by chris brunt. making a good run just inside the opposition half, but having no immediate support, the albion forward held the ball up, took on the wolves defenders and moved himself into a position for an accurate but ultimately speculative long-range strike at goal. with nothing else on, he had made something happen.

i don't really know what to say about somen tchoyi... the one inescapable truth is that the baggies seem to play better when he's on the pitch. watching him play just makes you laugh - one way or the other. he doesn't much like to pass the ball; that's one thing. but there is a tenacious quality to his play. even when he's held onto the ball too long and the opportunity to pass has been cut off, he fights his way forward until he finds space or is knocked off the ball completely. he's not everybody's favourite, and maybe it's just the sense of fun that he brings to the occasion, but the baggies are most definitely a better team when he's in the side.

because he is a generally unorthodox player it's easy to underestimate tchoyi, but his unwillingness to give up the football and his play around the edge of the box lead directly to brunt's opening goal. he is much more useful than he first appears, and always looked dangerous throughout the match with his possession and holding up the ball on the periphery of the penalty area.

of course, ensuing results will form the final judgement on the season - and as it progresses - but it's safe to say that this match revealed the arguments and discussion as to the team's tactical formation to be largely superficial, and no more than distracting media hype and fodder for discussion on various online message-boards.

what was important here was the quality of the team performance and had little to do with actual tactical formation. it was also a good example of how a traditional 4-4-2 formation is meant to defend. that is, the baggies allowed the wolves some space to play through the midfield, but closed down the forwards then looked to clear and release a front-running hold-up player. the tactic worked brilliantly.

i mean, who would have put money on the baggies producing two clean-sheets back-to-back?

chris brunt worked tirelessly at getting back to defend, and was instrumental in breaking up several wolves attacks down the albion right flank. after some less than inspired performances for the republic of ireland, gareth mcauley was excellent and probably worth baggies "man-of-the-match" and looks to be the centre-half that the baggies have long needed to partner the ever-steady jonas olsson.

with four out of five goals scored within the first five minutes of their previous matches, the albion continued this particular trend when youssouf mulumbu picked up the ball just outside wolves penalty area and spotted albion debutant, billy jones, making a run outside the wolves defenders on the left of the box. jones timed his run to perfection, staying onside and taking mulumbu's pass to the bi-line before squaring the ball back for captain chris brunt to smash home his first league goal of the season in the eighth minute.

wolves missed their best opportunity of the match to draw level within minutes when what looked an absolutely certain goal was saved on the line by jonas olsson. the move started with a low-cross from matt jarvis giving nenad milijas a chance on goal which was parried away by ben foster. the ball fell to kevin doyle at the far post who looked a certainty to score on an open net from point-blank range. but the wolves striker was thwarted as jonas olsson, in a brilliant display of defending, threw himself in the way to block the shot on the line. an audible sigh of relief went through the hawthorns. wolves wouldn't come as close again.

the real brilliance of how roy hodgson sets out to play football lies in his emphasis on defending and use of the counter attack. the back four were resolute, even when under siege from the wolves attack. in fact, it was the wolves attacking that constantly lead to the albion breaking and creating the better of the opportunities throughout the match. it was also a proper display of how to defend from the front, with midfielders dropping back to help cover for their full-backs.

both paul scharner and youssouf mulumbu had opportunities to score just before the break.

with nothing else on, mulumbu's long range effort swerved dangerously and could only be parried away by wolves keeper, wayne hennessy, however no one was in a position to follow up and wolves cleared easily.

scharner's opportunity came on a concise baggies counter-attack, with shane long running the ball down the left channel and cutting the ball back for the austrian whose effort only just curled past the far post.

peter odemwingie came on for somen tchoyi in the 72nd minute, and it didn't take the nigerian international long to shake off the slump that has plagued his season thus far. opportunistically, odemwingie took a sublime back-heel from paul scharner and slotted the ball home to send the hawthorns into relieved delirium.

for the moment, the baggies are champions of the black country.

roy hodgson's albion are starting to look good. things are beginning to gel and i think the team have generally adapted to the way that hodgson has wanted them to play all along. although i wasn't lucky enough to get a ticket for the match at villa park next week, i fully expect an albion victory and another historical bogey to be dispelled forever.

Sunderland A.F.C. 2-2 WBA

2011-10-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

before this match had ever kicked-off, any albion supporter would probably have (even if somewhat grudgingly) taken the single-point away to a sunderland team that bought big over the summer, and have made no secret of their ambition to consolidate their place as a top-ten side in the premier league. however, after having seen the baggies go 0-2 up in the first 5 minutes - on goals by much-maligned winger, james morrison, and in-form striker, shane long - albion supporters would feel like this was two points dropped.

while overall team performance in the first-half was much better than either the away win at norwich or the 3-goal loss at swansea, it was not what we have come to expect from the baggies over the last few years under the likes of tony mowbray and roberto di matteo.

roy hodgson has stuck with the tactical gambit of controlling the tempo of the match through solid defending and incisive counter-attacking - especially away from home. while it may be a bit one-dimensional and certainly doesn't seem to make adequate use of the considerable talent that the baggies have in midfield, it was most effective in the win at norwich city. west brom allowed their hosts a significant advantage in possession but allowed no real scoring opportunities, and kept an all too rare clean-sheet. it was classically economical football played from the back, creating the better chances coming forward and west brom should have won by 2 or 3.

the first mistake against sunderland was not to push on more aggressively and find the third goal. with their opponents on the ropes and the home crowd having turned on them, a 3-goal deficit would have left the black cats too much of mountain to climb and no hope of coming back.

the sunderland home support have recently grown frustrated - and vocally demonstrative about it - with gaffer, steve bruce, and the general perception of the club's start to the season as being unacceptably mediocre. in fact, with the wearsiders having come back from a 2-goal deficit to equalize, they were quite amazingly booed off the park at half-time. the big money buying has brought with it some big expectations and a palpable, hostile impatience now permeates the atmosphere at the stadium of light.

for me, the difference in this match was sunderland midfielder, stephane sessegnon. the benin international had served notice in the 13th minute when a long ball into the albion penalty area ended with a low, hard shot running just wide of ben foster's right-hand post. the baggies got another scare 10 minutes later when a similar effort was turned in for an apparent goal by ex-birmingham city midfielder, sebastian larsson. having spotted his team-mate's run, larsson got in behind his marker and redirected another low, hard drive by sessegnon into the albion goal. however, it was called back as larsson had made his run a step too early and was correctly ruled to be offside.

the black cats kept coming and finally made the breakthrough when sessegnon's next ball in at goal - and again running at the albion left flank - was back-heeled by larsson to the on-rushing ex-arsenal striker, nicklas bendtner. his shot took a deflection and left the already committed foster flailing and going the wrong way with no chance whatsoever of making a stop.

the equalizer came only minutes later through a nicklas bendtner cross which found ahmed elmohamady in front of goal. the egyptian had gotten in behind his marker and buried a hard, pacey header to make it 2-2.

roy hodgson should probably have put youssouf mulumbu on sessegnon, man-marked him out of the game and worked to deny him possession much higher up the pitch. the sunderland midfielder was brilliant whenever given a chance to run with the ball between the half-way line and baggies' penalty area.

while the baggies were probably the slightly better team over the first 45 minutes, they were decidedly second best after the break. in fact, nothing about the second-half was as good as the first, and both teams exhibited the desperate need not to lose more than either showed the desire to push on for the win. nonetheless, it was the black cats who had the better of the chances when, once again, sessegnon ran aggressively at the west brom back line before slipping a ball out to elmohamady on the right. the egyptian had a clear look at goal and a decent angle from which to shoot. but ben foster stood up, made himself big and positioned himself well to make a decisive save and maintain the score-line.

while the stadium of light crowd has, in no uncertain terms, made their disappointment clear, baggies fans are not too terribly happy about this year's campaign thus far either. perhaps it was the last season's 10th and 11th place finishes, respectively, creating yet more false dawns in the wasteland of dashed dreams and despair that is called the barclay's premier league?

there's no doubt that the gaffer has got the baggies defending much better as a team, and it has only been individual errors that have worked against them. however, the passing play through the midfield, as well as the the odemwingie/long strike partnership, hasn't really gelled yet. in truth, the two strikers together haven't looked anywhere near as dangerous as when long was partnered with somen tchoyi in the first two matches.

but it is odemwingie who hasn't clicked yet. while there have been moments when a ball coming over the top and the nigerian's pace against isolated defenders has looked dangerous, his decision making has been poor and is looking so hard to score that he is not seeing the play around him. in fact, with only a single pass completed between odemwingie and long in this match, a true "partnership" couldn't really be said to exist, as such.

so much has been said and written by TV and radio pundits, as well as posts in online fan forums, about "formation". there is endless opinion and lament concerning the abandonment of the successful 4-5-1 formation that roberto di matteo was forced to use when he had run out of fit strikers at half-time in an fa cup-tie with newcastle united. while they continued playing this way through the back end of last season, this year roy hodgson has reverted to a more conventional set up featuring two strikers.

what should be obvious from the nature of how the baggies have dropped points over the first seven games is that their lack of success has less to do with the formation than it does individual form. shane long got off the mark early. so far, he has been the best player on the team and has continued to improve over the first seven games. chris brunt looks to have come into form, being instrumental in the baggies' opening goal and having had a really good all-around performance against sunderland. stephen reid has grown into the right back spot and has definitely added strength to what was perhaps the side's weakest position. gareth mcauley has come into the first team and immediately proved a solid partner for jonas olsson in central defence. on the other hand, graham dorrans has created one or two exciting moments, but hasn't shown any of the charisma and creativity of which he is capable. james morrison has been wildly inconsistent, and the usually steady left-back, nicky shorey, has been responsible for several costly fundamental errors. as for the defensive midfield, youssouf mulumbu has played pretty well, paul scharner hasn't. in other words: individual form is all over the shop... never mind debating "formation"!

at this point, i would suggest that "selection" is where hodgson and his staff should be focussing their attentions. after all, it is only seven games into the schedule, and whatever the supporters feel, or what expectations have been created, after a solid mid-table finish last term, we've all got to remember that the goal is to place 17th or better in the league table on the final day of the season. period.

with so much attention having been paid to the acquisition of striker, shane long, and the retention of last year's goal-scoring leader, peter odemwingie, there has, no doubt, been pressure on the gaffer to play these two strikers together at the first opportunity. odemwingie was kept out of the side for the first two games due to a recurring ankle injury, and didn't get a start until the disastrous away loss to swansea city, having only come on briefly as a substitute late in the game against stoke city.

shane long is set to become the club's record signing through performance related contingencies in his contract, and the albion were forced to offer odemwingie substantial improvements to his existing deal with the club in order to ensure his stay at the hawthorns. however, it is only long that has impressed so far, having scored 3 goals already and his play continuing to improve; while odemwingie has struggled and despite netting the winner in west brom's solitary win, has been desperately out of form.

right now, the gaffer has to figure out how to inspire better, more assured performances from his charges and stick with his concept of making the albion a difficult side to break down with a solid spine from back to front. he also needs the goal-scorers in the team to step up and create more goal opportunities. chris brunt, graham dorrans, morrison and mulumbu need to be more adventurous in attack; and perhaps the gaffer needs to give simon cox a start alongside shane long up front.

4-5-1? 4-4-2?

forget about everything else and sort out your best footballers, mate.

WBA 0-0 Fulham F.C.

2011-09-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

the baggies haven't looked particularly good since ryan shotton nicked a last minute winner for stoke city at the hawthorns a few weeks ago. in retrospect, that moment seems to have shaken the baggies' confidence, and they don't look at all the team that put in two really solid performances against manchester united and chelsea at the start off the season.

likewise - and up until the moment of that disastrous goal, the baggies had had the better of the match with their nemesis club from staffordshire, and would have won had it not been for the goalkeeping of asmir begovic in the city goal. the stoke city keeper was in superb form, making two hugely important saves and solely deserving of the credit for the clean sheet which gave his team the opportunity to go on and snatch the late win in a match that had "0-0" written all over it.

the following two games - an ugly win at norwich city and a shameful 3-0 loss away to swansea - were particluarly undistinguished performances that left some pundits and supporters reaching for the panic button. the mainstream news media played on the hype that the albion had made its "worst ever" start to a premier league season (all six of them); the TV and radio pundits started to suggest that perhaps roy hodgson had "lost the plot"; while the gaffer's preference for a 4-4-2 attacking formation came under huge criticism in the online fan forums.

the team then gave a good away performance against everton in the league cup, only to see their efforts go to waste in a losing cause. with a 1-0 lead through a chris brunt penalty kick in the second-half, the albion again conceded a late goal - in the 88th minute - to everton defender, marouane fellaini, and forced the game into extra-time.

Everton F.C. 2-1 WBA

match text commentary

from there - and much like their FA cup adventure against reading two seasons ago - the initiative had swung the way of the mersey-siders and toffees' captain, phil neville, scored the winner with 18 minutes of extra-time left. it was a scenario which should be all too familiar to any long-time albion supporter.

the gaffer admitted in the post match press conference that he had "experimented" with the team formation in the cup-tie at goodison park. no doubt, this was influenced as much by what was being written in the online supporters forums as anything else. these internet forums have, of course, been the main source of criticism of the tactical switch from last year's 4-5-1 system, as opposed to the 2 striker system that the gaffer has implemented this year.

based on what he saw of his squad in the cup game, hodgson took the idea a step further in the home fixture with fulham. he implemented a flexible 4-3-3 which had shane long leading the line, peter odemwingie in a wide position on the right-wing and jerome thomas on the left-wing. chris brunt, graham dorrans and somen tchoyi covered the midfield and joe mattock returned to the starting line-up at left-back after having had a strong run in the reserves. baggies new-comer billy jones was deployed at right-back, while gareth mcauley - who had impressed in his two previous performances - was again assigned to partner jonas olsson at centre-half.

while the mainstream media has put an ever increasing pressure on the game over the last 3 decades or so, it is the online forums and so-called "social media" that have cranked up the heat in the last few years. it is hard to imagine somehow that some crank of an unemployed ditch-digger from dudley can now have profound affect on decisions taken by a man who has master-minded world cup upsets and taken top continental sides (as well as over-achieving underdogs) to both UEFA and europa league finals. but then, a good performer knowing what his audience wants will more often than not try and give it to them.

however, part of the problem with listening to the voice of inspired, rambling amateurs is that they haven't always got the focus right. the biggest talking point among baggies fans this last few weeks has been the question of 4-5-1 versus 4-4-2. the subject has been talked to the point of distraction in endless post on sites like westbrom.com. while the last few games have seen a west brom that has sacrificed some of their creativity in the mid-field - a quality the club is known for - and is primarily looking to keep things tight at the back and breaking on the counter attack, relying on the strikers to produce goals - the baggies have looked defensively more sound than they have in quite a while, and with two clean-sheets in the first six games they have already equalled their season's total of last year.

what the supporter/pundits have to remember is that it wasn't the formation that needlessly brought down swansea midfielder, joe allen, in the penalty area, giving swans their first goal and setting the tempo for a truly rotten performance. nor was it the formation that didn't come to collect a ball bouncing into his area, giving ryan shotten an open goal in which to score a last minute winner. neither did the formation needlessly lose the ball or give away free-kicks in dangerous areas. for the most part, the baggies' downfall thus far has been technical errors entirely creditable to individual players.

so, after a first half where it looked like the worst was coming true and memories of the ill-fated 2008-09 campaign started to flash through my head, the gaffer decided enough was enough and abandoned his bodged around 4-3-3 formation, moved odemwingie back in to a central position and the baggies looked far the better side in the second-half.

although the points total is still disappointing, a clean-sheet and chris brunt hitting the post four seconds into injury time was almost enough to make you think things are going to be OK.

when johnny giles took over as the club's first player-manager in 1975, the baggies were in the 2nd division and didn't get a result for the first 10 games. giles couldn't settle on a team - let alone tactic and formation - and by his own admission wasn't playing well himself. the baggies were promoted that year, and secured it with a famous victory on a second-half goal scored by tony brown away to oldham athletic on the last day of the season.

the baggies went in to the first division and finished 7th. johnny giles had laid the groundwork for the development of what would become one of the best sides in english football of the late 1970s under the leadership of ron atkinson. sometimes a bad start is just a bad start. this should be a good enough team to get over it and they have a gaffer who knows how to lead the way.

however, i fear that the opening two losses were much more detrimental to team confidence than any of us might have imagined they could have been. in these two games, the baggies had seen how good they are and know how well they should be playing, and at the minute everyone's trying too hard. odemwingie is looking too hard for the goal. paul scharner is making rash, over-active defensive decisions. brunt is too often searching in vain for the killer pass to put someone through on goal. graham dorrans doesn't seem to know where he fits in and nothing is really clicking yet with the possible exception of new boys shane long and gareth mcauley.

right now, they just have to learn to relax and play a more complete style of football within the parameters that hodgson has set. creatively, they might need to change it up a little bit sometimes. while the long ball tactic they've adopted has worked up to a point, they also need to play through the midfield and make use of the considerable individual talents there.

if the strikers aren't scoring, look to set up chances for the other natural goal scorers in the side - namely chris brunt and graham dorrans. let's have nickey shorey taking a free-kick once in a while. he's got a good shot over a dead-ball and is more than capable of delivering a long range scorcher from the set-piece. if odemwingie is looking stiff, put somen tchoyi on as a striker - and let's maybe see simon cox have a run in the team. in short, the club need to be just a little bit more fearless and show more of a sense of their natural creativity, resource and adventure... and for god's sake - they need to RELAX!!!

Swansea City A.F.C 3-0 WBA

2011-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

while i don't want to take anything away from what was a wonderfully free flowing and cavalier performance by swans, this was otherwise total crap... not worth writing about, other than to say that baggies fans deserve better than this. this was so bad that i almost wished i supported blues... if you can imagine that?!?!

in fact, i don't think i can remember a performance this bad - not even crystal palace at home in the championship two years ago was quite as bad!

this year, birmingham city are selling jerseys with the option of not having the advertising logo on it, and (for team player audio/video service subscribers) they have much more extensive video content, including "classic matches" and video tributes to club heroes in the archives. oh yeah, and city also have an online ticketing system that allows you to print tickets at home... all pretty cool stuff that i wish was available on the albion website.

still... albion 'til i die! but nothing to be proud of today...

Norwich City F.C. 0-1 WBA

2011-09-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

it was unusual to be sure. although i have seen the baggies win ugly matches, making use of egregious tactical transgressions before, i still thought that this was out of character for a roy hodgson side. still, it's clear that the gaffer favours a consciously more defensive style of play away from home, and, for better or worse, his tactics won out on the day.

peter odemwingie - and like shane long had against chelsea - put the baggies ahead in the first few minutes. they played the rest of the match as a rear-guard action with plenty of physical aggression on both sides.

the winning goal came in the 2nd minute, and developed from a long ball sent in by nicky shorey on the half-way line. the delivery was just beyond norwich defender, ritchie de laet, who was hopelessly turned and trying desperately to head the ball away from the albion striker, peter odemwingie. but the nigerian pounced, having the pace to beat de laet and cleverly directed his effort past the goalie with a deft flick of his left boot.

the baggies then gave norwich city the bulk of possession, defended their lead and remained set up to break on the counter attack. it quickly showed that this might not have been the greatest idea, as the canaries first - and perhaps best - chance of the match came in the 8th minute.

grant holt and andrew surman linked up with a well-worked give and go passing move that split the albion defence and allowed a low hard cross from surman to come in at the baggies' 6-yard box. in the end, it was only a matter of inches as holt put the ball just wide of the goal at the near post.

however, aside from a good shot at the edge of the albion penalty area by midfielder, elliot bennett, there was very little to test ben foster in the albion goal. the gaffer's tactical game came off and the baggies were finally up and running with their first points of the season.

while the canaries had the better part of the possession in the match overall, there was no doubt as to who was creating the better chances and controlling the game. peter odemwingie, along with strike partner shane long, was getting into space up front and moving the baggies into dangerous counter attack positions all day. graham dorrans fashioned a chance from nothing when a 20 yard strike came booming back off the post, having norwich goalie, declan rudd, well beaten; and the young keeper needed to be sharp on several occasions to prevent the baggies from going 2 goals up.

by contrast, ben foster was hardly bothered at all and had a fairly quiet afternoon.

there were two talking points of note. first, the albion were awarded what was shown to be in the video replays a rather "soft" penalty. stephen reid got on the end of a long cross in the canaries penalty area. with norwich striker, steve morison, on his back, trying to make the challenge, reid went down and won the decision for the albion.

it was probably justice served though, as graham dorrans, the usual albion penalty taker, had just come out of the game, peter odemwingie stepped up to take and rudd made a good save on what was ultimately a mediocre effort. the nigerian's strike was well on target, but his placement was poor. the canaries' goalie had guessed direction correctly and the save was simple, solid and athletic. still, it seems, the baggies continue to struggle occassionally with spot kicks.

the point of real controversy in this match was an apparent foul by gabriel tamas - presumably in retaliation for an earlier incident - in which he elbowed norwich substitute, james vaughn full on in the face in the west brom penalty area.

while it was well disguised by the romanian centre-half and looked like incidental contact at first glance - with a norwich player suddenly and spontaneously going down in the box well away from the ball - and for little apparent reason. however, under closer scrutiny it looked pretty bad, and from the evidence of the video replays tamas will probably be charged by the FA. it was a stupid foul and the baggies were lucky to get away with it and hang on for all 3-points.

with clear precedent for this kind of disciplinary action, it's a fair bet that tamas will be charged retroactively with "violent conduct" and forced to accept a 3 game ban. even though he has the support of his manager and club, that is largely a rhetorical exercise, and all concerned know that it is never a good idea to contest an FA disciplinary charge and risk possible extension of the ban.

the baggies have already played better and lost this year and i shall hope future performances are of a higher quality than this. however, it was significant that they kept a clean sheet and were able to protect a lead over the better part of 90 minutes. more importantly it showed that even on an off day, this particular albion side is capable of winning through adhering to specified tactics and keeping it tight at the back. while the canaries held the balance of possession they rarely looked like scoring, and the less frequent forays in attack by the baggies were creating the only real chances of the match.

it wasn't pretty, and at times was down-right nasty, but the win gets the season under way after a rough start; and today, that seems good enough.

WBA 0-1 Stoke City F.C.

2011-08-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

a friend of mine asked me how situations like this perpetuate themselves. for example, how does one team so completely dominate the results against another team of similar size and resource year after year, so as to become the nemesis of the other... a so-called "bogey" team, as it were?

is it the style and ethos of one club that is particularly successful against the style and ethos of the other? is it some inexplicable cosmic force at work, imposing a kind of astrological status quo? what is it?!? i had to think about it for awhile. the answer soon became obvious.

the fact is - and even in the world of modern football where players no longer spend entire careers at a single club - no matter what change in personnel has come to pass at the two respective clubs in the intervening time between one match and the next, there is always a couple of guys who were there the last time the two played each other. with the fixture comes a trepidation on one side, and an assured confidence on the other that becomes fixed, so that the failure of the one and the success of the other becomes a kind of inherited psychological pre-set. stoke city have now lost just one match and drawn 6 in the last 28 times the clubs have met. the albion must dread this fixture as much as any they have to play at this point.

oooooooh!!! stoke city... boogie boOGIE BOOGIE!!!

and so it was, once again. only seconds away from a draw - perhaps the best they could have hoped for after two goal-saving stops by stoke keeper, asmir begovic - when baggies' goalie, ben foster, was not quick enough in taking a long ball coming back at him on the edge of the box. baggies' centre-half, gabriel tamas, looked momentarily to be in two minds, but with foster shouting that he had it - and was indeed better positioned to take the ball and clear than tamas - all the romanian centre-half had to do was block out stoke substitute, ryan shotton, and shepherd the ball back for foster to take on the hop.

shotton got past tamas and foster's hesitation allowed for the stoke defender to literally nick the ball off the tips of foster's fingers and put it in an open goal. it was sunday league football stuff, and not the first time we've seen it at the hawthorns. but the gaffer was adamant that by today's standards, shotton's challenge was a foul and he came in with his leg high and his studs showing.

hodgson acknowledged that foster and tamas shouldn't have got themselves into such a mess at the back. truly - and while it probably was a foul - foster should have come more decisively for the ball, been a little more aggressive and risked taking a set of studs in the chest. at least there would have been no doubt about as to whether it was a foul or not. hodgson stated that he was particularly aggrieved after having seen the replay.

unlike playing against manchester united and chelsea, this game was thoroughly dominated by the baggies. they had the better of the possession, they created better chances, and they started and finished the stronger of the two teams. jonas olsson had kenwyn jones in his back pocket all day, and gabriel tamas played an intelligent and useful game, considering he was booked early in the first-half and played the remaining 83 minutes on a yellow card. the stoke goal was their only shot on target in the whole of the match while the baggies managed six.

the best scoring chance in the match came when somen tchoyi placed a perfect cross into the box which shane long headed powerfully at goal. while the final ball was pretty much straight at begovich, long had gotten enough power behind it that it required quick hands on the part of the stoke keeper to keep the baggies from going 1-0 up.

again, this was much better on TV than it was as audio commentary. particularly the second-half. it seemed as though the albion were resigned to meet the long ball tactics that stoke played throughout the first-half with the like. it made for a second-half that never really got going, and left the albion radio commentary team to lament the lack of flow and pace that characterized the first 30 minutes of the second period; and suggest that it may have been a tactical mistake on the gaffer's part.

the real story of this game, is that it brings home the immediacy of the premier league and seeing a possible nine points - of which the baggies should have taken at least three - as well as some good football go for nothing. the albion will need four points from the next six or they're going to find themselves in trouble and growing desperate for points with roughly 20% of the season gone. in the football league you could probably drop the first four or five games and still go on to win the division.

meanwhile, and with the summer transfer window closing, we have to start to worry a little about peter odemwingie. he played fifteen minutes against chelsea, and we certainly caught a glimpse of what he and shane long might be like in a forward pairing. but he was out of the line-up (and not even on the bench) this week due to continued problems with his ankle. in truth, this has been bothering him in varying degrees since he got to the club, and i would now start to be concerned that it might be something from which he may never fully recover and will hinder his last few years in professional football.

whatever the case, i have an ultimate faith in roy hodgson, and individual technical errors aside, he has managed to put together a much more stern and disciplined defence within the structure of a 4-4-2 set up. we can only hope that this somewhat deflating result won't erode any of the team's essential confidence this early in the season.

Chelsea F.C. 2-1 WBA

2011-08-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

this is the kind of match that makes me want to declare and testify to the worst and most egregious of blasphemies: sometimes, i hate the premier league and wish that...

don't get me wrong. i mean, i was perfectly thrilled when we beat arsenal at the emirates. i jumped out of my seat singing psalm 23 at the top of my lungs when simon cox equalized at white-hart lane, putting the baggies on 40 points and all but beyond any fears of relegation.

i travelled three-thousand miles and was witness to the most important goal of the season at the hawthorns, when carlos vela equalized in injury time against wolves to set the albion on an eight game unbeaten run that ultimately lead to their survival, and a respectable mid-table finish in the all mighty, bloody barclay's premier league.

for the baggies this was the best league finish in nearly 30 years and certainly gives us a reason to start dreaming a little of european nights returning to the hawthorns with all the glamour and glory that that entails.

not to mention, i get to see my beloved baggies every week on TV - if not live, then at least in repeat at sometime over the course of the following week.

however, the financial gap at the top of the league is just too much of a weight to bear in order to be competitive, and the re-structuring of a successful team in the football league to one that can survive for more than five years in the premiership is often an out and out gamble - sometimes with the very existence of the club.

this was the second week in a row that the albion have had to play champions league opposition, the second week in a row that they have lost a close game late on by a score of 2-1, and the second week in a row where they did not get some calls from the referee that they really should have... frustrating stuff. especially when you consider that the margin of skill between a team like west bromwich albion and the big clubs is marginal, while the cost of maintaining that margin is so exorbitant as to be preposterous. fernando torres cost more than 3 times as much as the entire albion starting eleven. that's 20 times what peter odemwingie cost the baggies when he signed initially.

will a modest or large community based club ever win the league again? never in your life. in the mid-1970s, clubs like derby county, norwich city, west brom, nottingham forest and QPR were all variously competitive top 5 clubs, and english football still produced surprises and miracles. nowadays, the premier league has pretty much outlawed miracles. it's just not good business.

last week was a disappointment at home, this week it was away.

the baggies took the lead against chelsea in the 4th minute on shane long's second goal in as many games, and while chelsea had the bulk of possession, it was the albion who were dictating the pace of the game and making good use of the break. long worked tirelessly up front, along with colourful striker, somen tchoyi, and the baggies could well have been another goal ahead at the break.

roy hodgson went with the same starting eleven, and the same tactical set-up as he had played against manchester united at the hawthorns. the gaffer seems very much committed to a two striker system - and it looks that he intends to use this system both home and away.

while the home side had the better of the possession - and especially for large chunks of the second half - the baggies were the better and more organized side throughout the first 45-minutes.

chris brunt has adapted to hodgson's style of football, and is no longer distracted by having taken the captaincy. with two defensive midfielders, in the pairing of paul scharner and youssouf mulumbu - and with brunt and james morrison covering the wings - the gaffer has instituted a form of 4-4-2 that is able to maintain a good defensive shape and compete successfully with teams playing 4-5-1, who would tend to have the advantage in midfield.

the baggies were creating all the early chances and it was brunt moving into a central attacking position that was making it happen. paul scharner got on the end of a brilliant through ball from brunt, forcing chelsea goalie, hilario, into making a sharp save at the near post. brunt then played in a ball that put shane long and somen tchoyi in behind the chelsea back four, and it would have been 2-0 save for long's poor final ball.

while they won't have been the first team to come to stamford bridge and spend long periods of defending in the second-half, the baggies were unlucky - just as they had been against manchester united - not to have hung on for the point. they did create several opportunities to equalize, as well, the best chance falling to peter odemwingie. however, his well struck volley on a ball played to the far post was solidly dealt with by hilario.

while there were questions to be asked about the two chelsea goals as far as the baggies defenders were concerned, these were isolated passages of football in what was otherwise a really good defensive performance overall.

early on after the restart, nickey shorey got caught out and and lost the ball to ramires inside the baggies half. carrying the play into the west brom penalty area, and with the baggies defenders now on the back foot, the brazilian midfielder played a ball which eventually fell for nicolas anelka, who squeezed in an effort at the far post after taking an unfortunate deflection off jonas olsson and leaving ben foster no chance to make the save.

the winning goal came late on and just when it looked as though the baggies had weathered the worst of it and ridden out a full-on chelsea onslaught for a solid fifteen-twenty minutes, and were looking good to hang on for the draw.

however, a momentary lapse and some indecisive defending allowed jose bosingwa to carry the ball into a dangerous area down the right flank and put a low, hard cross in to the box. florent malouda met the ball at the far post to knock it home and put the blues in the lead for the first time in the match.

peter odemwingie, last year's top-scorer at the hawthorns, came on with 15 minutes left in the game. the nigerian striker not only came close to scoring, but also had a shout for what looked a stonewall penalty, when he was flagrantly hauled over in front of the londoners' goal with just seconds of injury time left to play.

the baggies have now put in two quality performances against champions league opposition, and deserve better than to be left with no points. however, a rough start like this might be the tonic needed to inspire more competitive performances against their mid-table contemporaries. last season, the baggies beat arsenal at the emirates, liverpool at home and were the only team in the league to take any points from old trafford. however, they lost twice to blackburn rovers, and were unable to take more than a single point each from bolton, wigan, stoke and wolves. while sets of home and away draws was all they could manage against the likes of west ham and tottenham.

while there is little doubt that striker, shane long, and goalie, ben foster, have brought added quality to the team, the pundits will be forgiving of the baggies this year in the name of "second-season-syndrome". however, they have managed to keep the core squad together once again and there has been much to take heart from in these two opening performances. the albion faithful, no doubt, will be hoping for a little bit more than just survival in the top-flight.

as these first two matches have been good performances with poor results, it's essential that the baggies shrug it off and get at least a point next week against stoke city. the premier league can be an unforgiving environment. there are no easy games and it's all too quick and easy to fall into a rut, not get results and just get stuck. at this point, the quicker the baggies get their first point (or points), the better.

WBA 1-2 Manchester United F.C.

2011-08-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

this was the same scoreline as the last time these two met on albion's home turf, and so too was it a game of similar and familiar fortune. i had a sense that i'd seen the plot unfold a thousand times before. manchester united have always won matches that they don't necessarily deserve to - and i've been watching it all my life!

for the baggies there were plenty of positives and i don't think any west brom supporter can be too disappointed that they didn't manage to hang on for the draw or produce a late equalizer. although they wouldn't be unjustified in being so today.

the red devils started the match in high style and the baggies were under heavy pressure for the first 20 minutes while the champions showed their superior ability in terms of holding on to the ball, passing and scoring goals.

conceding after just 11 minutes, the albion needed to play their way back in to this one. without their talismanic striker, peter odemwingie - who is currently reported as being injured - the baggies had to rely on the ever entertaining somen tchoyi to lead the line; while the club's latest signing, striker, shane long, played in a slightly withdrawn position and it was quite clear that the gaffer was indeed employing a two striker system.

there is no doubt that this is an improved baggies side once again, and well in line with chairman, jeremy peace's, vision of incremental improvement year to year. ben foster is arguably the best goalie the baggies have had since russell hoult, and it appears that gabriel tamas has tightened up his game and earned the starting centre-half position, playing next to defensive linchpin, jonas olsson. while nicky shorey remains at left-back - and one of the most consistent players on the team - the albion are still in need of a right back and are most vulnerable to attacks down the opposition's left wing.

so it was in this match, as manchester united left winger, ashley young, was the key man in the red devils attack. it was the space that he kept finding down the baggies right that lead to both goals, and he had the beating of his cover all afternoon. in fact, it was a hopeful ball that the ex-villa man put across the face of the baggies' goal that took a couple of deflections - the final one off albion's right back, stephen reid - and went on the score sheet as an own goal, that won the match.

it isn't unjustified to say that the baggies were unlucky in this case.

the albion's success story on opening day was the debut of shane long. he did well enough, putting himself about and pressing up front. he also showed that he's not short on confidence, whacking a 25 yard shot several yards wide as his first offering to the baggies' attack. the 24-year old irish international also scored his first goal in west brom colours.

on a ball played outside to him by chris brunt, long cut inside his marker on the edge of the box and his low, rolling, accurate finish beat united goalie, david de gea, at the far post. it was well directed from a sharp angle, nevertheless de gea should have had it and a very basic mistake left the teams on equal terms at the break.

going in at the half with the score at 1-1, the albion had to be the happier of the two teams, and they came back to dominate the game for long periods in the second half.

however, this is manchester united, and no matter who you are, they will find a way to beat you. even if it's something fluky, it all comes from the extra edge of depth and talent they have in their squad.

still - and as an albion fan - we almost always play well against man united and we have for a long time. one of these days - and we're going to have the opportunity for the next few years, i think - we'll beat them 3-0 at old trafford. yeah, one of these days... anyway, it's not like i wasn't half expecting it.

roy hodgson was seen losing his cool late on the match. but i think it was probably more his team's shape and tactics (or lack thereof) causing him to blow his stack rather than any perceived injustice or misfortune that the baggies had suffered. chris brunt gave paul scharner a good rollicking on a couple of occasions, with captain and manager seemingly on the same wave-length.

it appears as though roy hodgson has come up with a formation whereby the team defends without a central midfielder. this allows for the back four and two defensive midfielders to cover behind two wingers. the strikers are free to press the play up front but can always find space to drop back and defend from the central midfield as the ball comes forward at them.

in attack, one of the wingers comes into a central position and one of the holding players go wide. simple. the only problem is in getting it right as to whose responsibility is what. it seemed as though brunt was designated to come into the central position in attack and scharner who was supposed to go wide on the right. all too often, though, neither scharner on the right, nor morrison on the left were switching position quickly enough. this left the baggies getting caught defending with a narrow box shape in the midfield that was giving far too much space to the united backs and wingers, most notably, ashley young. and that, of course, was the difference on the day.

in fact with a lot of the best football in the match contested in the middle of the park this was a good game on television, but a bit flat in the medium of audio commentary.

as for the fan reaction, most baggies supporters were happy with the performance, and uncharacteristically positive about their team's potential for the year. by the end of the BBC WM football phone-in show on sunday, it was pretty clear that no one - not even the big-time pundits - are too worried about the albion and nobody is really expecting them to struggle this year.

there is definitely a positive buzz in the baggies' camp and an opening day loss to the champions did nothing to dampen that spirit. however, you can bet that roy hodgson will be working out what to do in the case of any and all eventualities.

Striker, Striker Burning Bright...

2011-08-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

we all pretty much knew it was going to happen, but the wait is finally over. reading striker, shane long, has finally signed with the baggies for what is almost as much as the club have ever paid for anyone, anywhere at anytime: £4.5million. iglesias borja-valero is still the club's most expensive signing at £4.7million.

while borja-valero came highly touted by then-baggies manager, tony mowbray, the spanish international produced only 3 assists in his 31 starts for the albion, and never generally worked out. in fact, he has spent most of time at the albion out on loan with several different top clubs in his native spain.

shane long comes to the hawthorns as the most highly touted player since roy hodgson took over and the gaffer is expecting big things from his young signing. last year in the championship the 24-year-old striker scored 25 times in 51 starts. that's an impressive record in any league and hodgson believes that long has what it takes to be competitive in the top-flight and become a bona fide baggies' legend, along with names like clark, regis, taylor, and phillips.

at the same time, it looked like ishmael miller was going to nottingham forest, and was scheduled for the routine medical on monday. however, forest have since reported that they are close to signing matt derbyshire from blackburn rovers leaving us all wondering where that puts the miller transfer. news stories from yesterday, including a statement from forest manager, steve maclaren, suggest that miller is perhaps a second choice to another target signing.

this has revived speculation that miller might be set for a transfer to middlesbrough, and a reunion with ex-baggies manager, tony mowbray, who has always been one of miller's greatest proponents.

whatever else is happening - and with reports that peter odemwingie is going to be out of the side that will be opening the season at home to league champions, manchester united on sunday - long is probably going to find himself thrown in at the deep end with an opportunity to make his mark in a big premier league fixture almost immediately.

it was long who scored the solitary goal in a 1-0 win for the royals that put west brom out of the FA cup last year.

despite being a near record signing, this was the only significant money the baggies have had to spend on what looks to have been a really successful transfer market. billy jones, gareth macauley, martin fulop and zoltan gera all signed on free transfers; while high-profile goalkeeper, ben foster, came on a loan deal from cash-strapped local rivals, birmingham city. long is the sixth deal of the transfer window and there is still a single loan spot left should west brom need to use it.

so, while there is still room and time to make one or two more deals, the baggies do not feel pressured on the issue, and with shane long's signing, both roy hodgson and dan ashworth feel they've got a complete side and are ready to begin the new top-flight campaign.

as well, there are also three or four top academy players at the hawthorns - in the likes of sam mantom, george thorne and craig dawson - which will not impact on the 25-man team roster that the gaffer will soon have to decide on. the albion have made it clear that there is still room for another defensive player should the right opportunity present itself.

WBA 1-1 Parma F.C.

2011-08-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

it's hard to write about pre-season friendlies. especially involving teams with which you are completely unfamiliar. the prime difficulty being that there is no text commentary available. none of the regular sources - like the BBC or the club website - report any of statistics, and you usually can't even find a team-sheet until after the match. what can you talk about with no statistics and not even knowing the oppositions names and numbers?

it is, however, the time of year that fringe players, and players just coming into the club, get some time on the pitch in competitive fixtures and one can begin to make evaluations and read into the manager's intentions somewhat. it's the time of year for speculation and hope. although, and especially with a club like the baggies, who buy carefully and very often don't make their most important signings until the end of the transfer window, things aren't always clear until opening day and sometimes beyond.

for example, peter odemwingie came into the side on the friday before the second match of the season last year. the nigerian striker scored a late winner against sunderland at the hawthorns without even having had enough time at the club to get his name in the match-day programme.

one thing that was clear from this year's pre-season, which included a 3-game tour of the western US, was that the baggies have done things right and will be taking an even stronger team into this season's premier league than last year's squad which managed to achieve a creditable 11th place in the league.

while we may not be able to repeat the same thing next year, we're looking less and less like a team that will struggle, and there is a phenomenal amount of confidence and belief within the environment of the playing squad at the moment.

while there are always the regular grumblings from premier league "purists" who insist the jeremy peace doesn't do enough in terms of "splashing the cash" to ensure continued and future success in the top-flight, but the baggies major coup over the summer was managing to hang on to their best and most important players. despite concerns that a hungry club with money would come calling for odemwingie, or rumours that have persisted for almost a year now linking chris brunt with a move to liverpool, everyone has pretty much stayed, while both brunt and youssouf mulumbu having signed improved contracts recently.

with peter odemwingie staying on as well, and ben foster coming to the club from a troubled birmingham city side, the albion have been able to keep to their long term schedule for building a successful side in a way that jeremy peace has always envisioned for the baggies: constant and incremental improvement from year to year. it may not be the most exciting or flamboyant management style, but last season's mid-table finish should have gone a long way in vindication of the chairman's conservative approach to spending.

as of yesterday, martin fulop signed with west brom, filling the vacant goalkeeper spot left by the departure of boaz myhill to blues and the search for regular football. so the baggies are now left with only the singular problem of finding a striker.

they are also left with the prospect of needing to sell one or two of the veteran squad members. ishmael miller looks like he'll be going to nottingham forest and is scheduled for a medical there within a few hours. hodgson has said that the deal will be a permanent move for the baggies' striker.

i feel badly for miller. i was very hopeful for him as youngster having to meet the challenges of playing a single-striker set-up in the premier league. but just as he was beginning to show his potential and look like a top-flight player, and on the back of several really good goals, he was injured in a collision with then-pompey goalkeeper, david james, and the albion were ultimately relegated. miller came back to score in his first start in 14 months against blackpool, and then got another important goal three days later in a vital win at swansea.

it was a comeback that was never to be, though, as niggling injuries and increasing difficulty getting into the side under roberto di matteo saw him go out on a loan spell at QPR where he really never featured and only scored once - coming on as a substitute - in his half-season at loftus road.

the sad fact is that the club has evolved, and a player like miller needs to be in the first team somewhere and getting regular starts. the albion can no longer really offer him this, as he would be taking his place in the queue behind peter odemwingie, marc-antoine fortuné, somen tchoyi, simon cox and probably even roman bednar. the club has moved on and developed without him.

another face that was conspicuous through absence on the bench for this one was marek cech. while he was a useful player last term in a utility role - playing for nicky shorey and paul scharner when injured - but like miller is a player who probably needs to be in the starting XI and might do well for his career to move on rather than remain at the hawthorns.

with this coming weekend's opener at home to league champions, manchester united, the baggies are just a striker short of where they aim to be. last year - and on the eve of an opening day thrashing at the hands of chelsea - the albion had yet to sign peter odemwingie, paul scharner and somen tchoyi.

with striker shane long from championship side, reading f.c., as their identified target, west brom are miles ahead of where they were this time last year. i can't help feeling that this all bodes well for the coming season.

Cometh the Transfers - Cometh the Season

2011-08-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

with the start of this year's football league competitions just a little over 24 hours away, and the premier league proper ready to go a week from tomorrow, i find myself scrambling to get this article written so that i'm at least up to date before hull and blackpool kick-off tomorrow evening.

i look forward to the prospect of a fourth season blogging about the baggies, digital multi-media, trans-atlantic trips to the hawthorns and televised football from the perspective of supporting a large community based club from overseas.

unless you happen to support manchester city, the talk on message-boards, fan forums and chat-rooms is almost exclusively preoccupied with rumours from the transfer market, ranting and lamenting that your club has not spent enough money or brought in the players so desperately needed to achieve whatever relative success will be on immediate demand.

for the millions who support manchester united, they will be worrying about a lack of depth to compete successfully in both the premier league, uefa champions league, and will be expected to win at least one of the two major domestic cup competitions as well. they will also be contesting the charity shield game against cross-town rivals and current fa cup holders, manchester city this sunday.

fans of both liverpool and chelsea will have similar expectations, while arsenal, tottenham and manchester city will be expecting nothing less than a top-four finish. newcomers norwich, QPR and swansea city will join most of the rest of the league in targeting survival and little else.

of course, if you support an established mid-table premier league side (if indeed, such a thing truly exists), you might also entertain the prospect of a cup run; just as long it doesn't come at the expense of, or create any distraction from getting the necessary results in the league.

whatever the situation, the complaints will always be roughly the same and most supporters will believe their club not to have been aggressive enough about "splashing the cash" in order to obtain what are very often unrealistic signings and expectations.

with manchester city being the one notable and consistent exception to the rule, sunderland has been the one truly aggressive club since the outset of the summer tranfer window. they signed everybody they could, it seemed, and they did it early on. this is no doubt reaction to the drastic drop in form the black cats suffered during the second-half of last season.

as for west bromwich albion, they've done OK. the baggies signed defenders gareth mcauley and billy jones right at the outset - and before their tour of the western US - and action was relatively slow for another week or so while talk of owen hargreaves coming to the hawthorns started to flag a bit. however, they were then successful in their quest for a number one goalie in taking ben foster from cash-strapped and on the rocks birmingham city; while zoltan gera re-signed with the albion and is expected to start playing in september, after serving a three-game ban for a red-card incurred playing for fulham on the final day of last season.

it is no secret that west brom still need another goalie, with boaz myhill having gone to blues, and are also looking for a striker. even with a new stiker - the current target being reading's shane long - i think that hodgson has a few surprises up his sleeve.

for example, he brought roman bednar back for the pre-season, along with a fit ishmael miller, and gave them both regular playing time on the american trip, as well as two friendlies back on english soil - against rochdale and southampton respectively. the two veteran baggies' frontmen were generally rotated in partnership with simon cox and somen tchoyi. peter odemwingie did not make the trip, taking some deserved recuperation time following what was ostensibly two years straight football without a break.

whether he's got another striker coming or not, the gaffer is hedging his bets and looking to maintain his resources in order to manage the inevitable injury problems that will occur at some point in the season.

it won't be the same as last year, and new heroes will have to take on new responsibilities if the baggies are going to see continued success in the premier league. however, things are looking good: graham dorrans will no doubt get a chance to leave his mark on the top-flight, and we could very well see some of the mowbray-era veterans like ishmael miller, roman bednar and zoltan gera getting some time in the side.

with the baggies continuing their off-season with a match away to bristol city, hodgson started to show more-or-less what the starting team is going to look like for the beginning of the season. while ben foster didn't have much to do in his first outing in albion colours, you could sense his quality and the improvement he's going to add between the posts.

stephen reid, gabriel tamas, jonas olsson and nicky shorey made up the back-line. paul scharner and youssouf mulumbu continued their partnership defending in the midfield; while chris brunt and jerome thomas played wide behind a two striker set-up of peter odemwingie and somen tchoyi - a very solid looking albion side.

after squandering their initial opportunities and having a massive edge in possession, the baggies finally prevailed 1-0 on a late goal by substitute craig dawson.

right now the baggies have got one of the best managers in the business and an improved team from last year. it should be another good year in the premier league for west bromwich albion.

Heavy Lay the Judgement

2011-06-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

it's been a little less than two weeks now since swansea city brought an end the football season, winning themselves promotion to the almighty PREMIER LEAGUE through play-off final victory over reading f.c., and the transfer market is already starting to buzz with activity and rumour.

in the new world digital millennium, the easiest way to gauge what the supporters are actually thinking is to browse your way through the various websites which host message-boards and fan forums and have a look at what people are posting.

i have recently and regularly been following - and contributing - to several threads at westbrom.com, an independent fan site with quite active forums and a membership of about 4000. while the site is well moderated and there is some surprisingly keen local insights in the writing and contributions to posts, there is still enough ill-conceived thought and unrealistic expectation going on here to support my assertion that the PREMIER LEAGUE can do terrible things to the soul of a football club.

it has long been known that the club's intention - and indeed, its necessity - to strengthen the centre-back positions. with jonas olsson the only defender about whom there is no question as to his place and importance in the squad, the lack of two good centre-backs is otherwise a pretty glaring deficiency in the side. neither does roy hodgson appear too keen on either of the goalies it seems. this is no surprise, as the baggies were simply unable to deal with corner-kicks and set plays going into the second-half of the season, so you can bet there'll be at least a few signings made to address this situation between now and august.

what is evident on the message-boards and online forums is that the expectation of the supporters as to who a club like west bromwich albion can attract (or afford) is largely unrealistic. there's enough talk about the idea of bringing a player like christopher samba to the hawthorns, and plenty of commentary about how gareth macauley and billy jones - the first signings of roy hodgson's tenure - are adequate back-up players to the proven "top-grade" defenders that the baggies' management are apparently going to be buying; and how no one seems to rate andy lonergan as a goalie, blah blah blah...

much of fan posting is quite fanciful, to say the least. as a supporter of a large community based club, what you want is one thing; what you get is another and the truth is always somewhat mundane.

christopher samba has been linked with a move to arsenal. even the top clubs have trouble finding defenders of his quality. andy lonergan is, in fact, one of the better english goalies, and at 27, a fairly long career can still be projected for the current preston north end stopper. more than one or two PREMIER LEAGUE clubs will eventually be seriously targeting him to compete for a place in their starting eleven.

whatever is happening and whoever else the baggies sign over the summer, the club's most recent acquisitions are players being brought in to strengthen the first team and no one is being signed with the intention of playing them in the reserves or as a substitute for someone better. make no mistake, billy jones and gareth mcauley have both been brought in to compete for places in the first team.

one subject that really had me shaking my head were the discussions about danny graham. with expectations that he'd be coming to the hawthorns, the general reaction was, for the most part, pretty lukewarm-to-negative with loads of unenthusiastic assessment promoting the old cliché that a player like graham might've done well in the CHAMPIONSHIP, but is never going to be a proper PREMIER LEAGUE player; and again how he might be of some use coming off the bench for some imaginary proven "top-flight" striker.

well, the fact is that we didn't even come close in getting last year's joint top-scorer in the CHAMPIONSHIP and were out-bid (quite significantly, i might add) by both QPR and ultimately, swansea city. like the albion, these two clubs - both new to the PREMIER LEAGUE for the upcoming season - in pursuing graham, would have hope and confidence that the ex-watford sharp-shooter can be an important player in the PREMIER LEAGUE and an asset to anyone looking at the struggle for survival in the world's top football league.

the days when the big community based clubs, like the albion, could compete financially with teams at the top of the league and playing attractive football was the measure, are long gone. as the money continues to get out of hand and the gap between the top 4 or 5 clubs and everyone else gets bigger, expectations of what is possible will have to continue to change. while there is a historical precedent and the baggies are the 15th most successful side in the annals of english football, the right to claim a place as one of the top 20 clubs in the country is something the albion are going to have to perpetually battle out with 10-12 other clubs of similar size and stature.

my only answer is to have faith in our club. as albion fans, let's hope for and try to inspire a little bit of magic. it's easy to project continued success for all our proven and favourite players; like peter odemwingie, graham dorrans and youssouf mulumbu; but let's also hope that simon cox can become a consistent goalscorer in the PREMIER LEAGUE. let's hope that ishmael miller can finally come back from injury and be something like the player that we all hoped he would. let's have faith that our new signings are successful and can make significant contributions to improving the squad. let's hope that we find a good goalie and another quality centre-half. let's just hope...

A Satisfying End

2011-05-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

Newcastle Utd F.C. 3-3 WBA

live text replay

in my blog of august 8th of last year, i stated that i no-less-than expected a mid-table finish from the baggies in their upcoming premiership campaign. in the end - and by the grace of somen tchoyi - my prediction happily came true. instead of finishing a respectable 14th in the table (as it well looked they might), west bromwich albion completed doubles over sunderland and everton in the final few weeks of the season before securing this all important single point against the toon to claim a final league standing of 11th.

this is certainly beyond what anyone (i actually predicted 9th...) had expected, and was something that the supporters by-and-large would have felt was a few years overdue. with the pre-season prognostications by pundits of every stripe and stature almost unanimously picking the baggies to finish 19th - one place above what was predicted for blackpool - the season can only be judged to have been a massive success.

while i can feel a certain amount of vindication as to my unwavering faith in the team, it didn't happen quite how i had expected it would; and i certainly had not counted on the phenomenon that was peter odemwingie. the nigerian international scored 15 goals and his efforts can be counted as directly attributable for 27 of the club's total points this season. the baggies were still hardly a model defensive team, and there were variously problems with full-backs, centre-halves and goalies. so it was really the nigerian's scoring ability, more than any other single factor, that made the albion a competitive proposition in the top-flight this year.

on the management side, the accomplishment of a solid mid-table finish was as much the work of roberto di matteo as it was of both roy hodgson and jeremy peace. i don't really know what happened, or why specifically (and other than the obvious answer of "results") the club decided to change managers? especially as there has always been a tradition of sticking with the present gaffer during a PREMIER LEAGUE campaign at the hawthorns. so the circumstances under which the baggies succeeded was essentially roy hodgson leading roberto di matteo's 25 man squad to PREMIER LEAGUE respectability.

whatever the case, the decision to bring in a new regime, while being unpopular at the time of di matteo's sacking, was celebrated the moment that we learned that the job had been given to roy hodgson. it was a better fit than anyone could have anticipated or hoped for. the new gaffer turned it around completely and went on to lead the baggies through an eight game unbeaten run, and posted only two losses in their last twelve matches.

absolutely everyone knew what he had done at fulham, and west brom was much the same kind of assignment: take a club in danger of relegation and keep them in the division. we'll see what next year brings and will be better able to assess whatever is achieved relative to what the gaffer accomplished in his time at craven cottage. but this was a more compact, emphatic and decidedly less dramatic survival campaign than the final day heroics at fulham required three years ago.

the baggies had clinched survival against sunderland , really, and their victory at home to everton, as well as the ridiculous and sublime last day efforts of somen tchoyi to rescue a point away to newcastle, were relaxed and ultimately entertaining matches that earned west brom their 11th place finish.

WBA 1-0 Everton F.C.

live text replay

after their best season in over thirty years, and their place in next year's PREMIER LEAGUE competition cemented, the baggies posted their third "double" of the year on the strength of their second clean-sheet of the campaign.

yuossouf mulumbu, no doubt buoyed by his selection as albion's "player of the year" - added to his scoring account with his 9th goal of the season with less than 10 minutes gone in the game.

while this was a decidedly better defensive effort on the part of both teams than had been in the reverse fixture - which ended a 4-1 win to the baggies - everton didn't take their chances and west brom managed to hold out for a clean-sheet to bookend their season's home fixtures with two 1-nil victories over sunderland and newcastle respectively.

the real surprise in the last two games was, without a doubt, somen tchoyi's spectacular second-half hat-trick against the toon on the final day.

the cameroon international has scored several goals earlier in the season and certainly can look dangerous going forward, but his tactical play as winger has always been in question and he has been the butt of more than a few jokes and subject to hard criticisms on the ALBION RADIO commentaries; and, judging by what has been written about him on various websites and fan forums, the supporters' opinion of him was generally pretty negative as well.

"i'm trying to figure out what position tchoyi's playing?"

"i'm not quite sure that he knows!"

followed by a quick round of laughter.

"he likes to run with the ball does old somen," the commentator adds, chuckling to himself, "he's just not too keen on passing it!"

while i have to admit, tchoyi had been uneven as a winger, despite looking a danger going forward and scoring several good goals when given the opportunity. however - and i'm unsure how anyone missed it - the cameroon international is a natural centre-forward. i had had my suspicions, but as to how good he can be, i was surprised and thought that albion may have found one of their missing strikers for next season.

no doubt, hodgson will bring in some of his own players, especially defenders and a goalie. i imagine that would be the boss's first order of business. you're always looking for strikers anyway, and the big job of the summer will be to keep hold of peter odemwingie. i think the gaffer also might have ishmael miller and simon cox in his plans for next year; so, we may have a few surprises yet, as well a search for another right-winger.

we will also have the return of graham dorrans to look forward to. while it was testament as to the general footballing talent in the side that the all-important attacking central midfield position was played so effectively by a rotating, patchwork crew of wingers and strikers. having the young scottish international back in the side will see a boost in quality to the albion's attack, and should supply a few more goals from central midfield. dorrans' ability to score from both open play and set pieces is well know to the baggies faithful but still a fairly unknown quantity in the PREMIER LEAGUE.

with part of the first team - including odemwingie - having gone home already, and the baggies 3-0 down early in the second-half thanks to an out of character own-goal by jonas olsson, tchoyi single-handedly got the baggies back in the match with two goals in ten minutes. the baggies were left with 20 minutes in which to find the equalizer and perhaps even go on to win the game.

when a speculative ball came looping into the newcastle penalty area, rolling harmlessly through and heading for touch, ishmael miller used his pace and wit to keep the ball in play with a smart back-heel to jonas olsson who dinked a in short cross for tchoyi to calmly head home the albion's 3rd goal.

in a way it summed up the baggies' season and was in keeping with old club traditions: if you can score enough goals, you'll do ok. after all, you're only as good as your strikers.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 WBA

2011-05-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

live text replay

after last week's win over their other great rival, aston villa, just about guaranteed PREMIER LEAGUE football at the hawthorns again next season, this was always going to be made all the tougher a fixture for it. it would be easy to make excuses for this one and even be somewhat cynical, but the baggies played poorly in the first half and conceded early goals on a pair of corner-kicks leaving them 2-0 down within the first half-an-hour. despite rallying and creating several good scoring chances in the second half, it was an insurmountable score-line and wolves' goalie, wayne hennesy, made several key saves that put the issue beyond doubt.

to be fair, the baggies were fielding a squad desperately depleted through injury (as well as paul scharner's single match suspension) and in no need of taking chances or any undue gambles. three key players needed for defending corner-kicks - a particular and conspicuous weakness for the baggies this season - were missing from the line-up, in the likes of paul scharner, chris brunt and steven reid. it almost felt like the fulham away game all over again.

while referee mike dean called a pretty fair game over-all, he was intent on awarding wolves everything in the first few minutes, and didn't look like he would be comfortable until they had a good crack at goal. a second of two fairly soft fouls on the edge of the albion penalty area saw scott carson at full stretch to palm away jamie o'hara's dangerous free-kick. it was on the resulting corner-kick that wolves took the lead.

steven hunt's delivery was well put into a dangerous area and the albion defenders were largely left watching as the ball broke for wolves' front-man, steven fletcher who duly smashed it past a flailing scott carson.

with less than half-an-hour gone, wolves again took advantage of the albion's poor defending on corner-kicks when a similar goal was scored by french midlfielder, adlene guedioura. again wolves lost their markers and terrorized the west brom goal with a largely unchallenged aerial assault which saw guedioura head the ball home for a two-goal lead.

a third goal early in the second-half through a technical error by abdoulaye meite put the game beyond the baggies despite getting a goal back through a peter odemwingie penalty which kicked off the threat of a west brom comeback. at the end of the day, though, it was wolves who both wanted and needed this game more than the baggies did.

i'm sure that roy hodgson learnt a few things about the character of some of his individual players today. abdoulaye meite mis-controlled a routine ball that allowed steven fletcher an easy opportunity to score wolves' third goal. on the back of his unfortunate own-goal against the villa, the technically gifted centre-back - who has otherwise been in sterling form since his re-introduction to the first team - is sometimes prone to mistakes of the most basic nature. likewise, somen tchoyi who is another technically good player, has no idea how to pass a football, and one has to hope he is able to create direct opportunities on goal otherwise his time on the ball can be largely wasted.

simon cox continued to impress and was unlucky not to score. the young striker, who has found a place as a starter in the first team since roy hodgson taking over, looked sure to score only to see his effort saved by a superb reaction from wayne hennessy. somen tchoyi also should have had a goal, but put his opportunity at a free header just inches over the crossbar; while jerome thomas, exhibiting a superb piece of individual skill, sent a screaming shot spinning skyward off the woodwork with an effort that had wayne hennesy well beaten.

it was a rare win for wolves in the black country derby who have been decidedly second-best in games with the albion over the last decade. they were due for the win, wanted it more and needed it to continue their bid for top-flight survival.

it's going to go down to last day. wolves are going to need at least one more win and hope results in other games go their way in order to survive. at the moment, they look like finishing ahead of west ham, wigan, blackpool and birmingham, but you never know what the last two matches will bring, and goal difference is looking like it might come into play in deciding the final relegation places.

i think we all probably want to see the black country derby again next year, and will be hoping that wolves survive for that very reason.

meanwhile, and in all likelihood, the baggies will go into the last day contesting an 11th or 12th place finish with newcastle united away at st. james park.

WBA 2-1 Aston Villa F.C.

2011-04-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

live text replay

with chris brunt, steven reid, graham dorrans and jerome thomas out of the side this week due to injury - and reduced to 10 men due to paul scharner's rash and unnecessary challenges that saw him ejected from the match on a pair of yellow cards - roy hodgson still managed to orchestrate the victory that puts the question all but beyond doubt.

with 43 points as their tally thus far, and with trips to wolves and newcastle still to come, as well as the season's last home fixture with everton, the baggies, it seems, have put the issue beyond question: there will be top-flight football at the hawthorns next year.

the question was ultimately settled by the baggies first win against local rivals, aston villa, since 1985.

and this was the one that mattered. while the rivalry with wolves has, since the 1950s, become one of the most intense in english football - and certainly it can get ugly, serving as a magnet for the worst type of followers from both clubs - but this year it was the villa that was the prize derby victory.

there's no doubt that the last minute draw with wolves at the hawthorns kicked off the present run of form, and marked roy hodgson's debut in charge of the baggies, but this all important derby with traditional rivals, the villa, justified all assertions that this is a resilient side with a winning character. the baggies have taken 26 points from games in which they have trailed. in light of this fact, it is worth noting that youssouf mulumbu has scored two late goals (against blackpool and aston villa) with the team at a numerical disdvantage due to sendings off.

this particular victory was also a fine and fair vindication of west brom's long suffering and much criticized chairman, jeremy peace. after a decade of play-offs, promotions, false-starts and relegations, the chairman's long-term plans can be reviewed to reveal a history of truly intelligent - and sometimes inspired - football management. every time that the baggies have waged a top-flight campaign - and every time they have been relegated and promoted back from the CHAMPIONSHIP again - they have always returned to the PREMIER LEAGUE a better team.

we may have gotten lucky with roy hodgson, and certainly the partnership of hodgson with the albion has been a perfect fit. so finely matched are the styles of each that it's hard not to see the gaffer at the hawthorns for an extended stay now. as long as the baggies can keep surviving the PREMIER LEAGUE we will have something quite special at west brom for some time to come.

the most striking thing about this match from the point of view of the baggies is the manner in which the villa took the lead and the albion's subsequent reaction over the next 86 minutes.

clearly it was the villa who started off the better of the two teams. in possession the visitors clearly had control of the flanks and made penetrating runs down the wings, making it difficult for the baggies to defend right from the outset.

with just four minutes gone west brom paid the price when stewart downing beat nicky shorey down the right side and provided a cross which saw abdoulaye meite score an unfortunate own goal, badly slicing his clearance past a rooted and helpless scott carson. while he probably should have tried to clear the ball by turning and using his left foot instead of facing the goal and trying the clearance with his right, it was the kind of mistake that happens to every centre-half at some point. meite was just the victim of his own instinctive reaction. you can't blame him really, and i think it was as much plain bad luck as anything.

before roy hodgson's arrival at the hawthorns, this type of goal - and coming so early in the match - would have destroyed the defensive confidence - and considering the baggies were generally outplayed in the first half, they almost certainly would have folded and gone on to lose this one under roberto di matteo. but this is a different albion side. meite, along with the rest of the back four - went on to play a solid game and the baggies were certainly the side of superior character at the end of the day - and that's what really counts!

the gaffer showed his tactical superiority last week at white hart lane and continued in good form by getting the baggies into the dressing room with only the one goal deficit and setting out to turn things around in the second-half. a large part of hodgson's genius at west brom has been in his use of personnel.

roberto di matteo did not like using players he considered to be of a lesser than "top-flight" caliber. it was clear, for example, that he did not consider either simon cox or abdoulaye meite (as well as a host of others) good enough to play in the PREMIER LEAGUE. roy hodgson, on the other hand, knows how to use players, and gets the best out of their natural abilities through superior organization of a side at any level of football.

but then hodgson has the benefit of never having played first team league football, and doesn't have the natural prejudices of the virtuoso performer.

to their credit, the baggies weathered whatever the villa could manage to throw at them, and in chasing the game the visitors played into the albion's hands. with a man advantage and a superior count of possession, the villa gambled and brought on robert pires for nigel reo-coker. the 38-year-old midfield maestro had no running or invention and his lack of passing and pace negated somewhat the numerical advantage that the villa had had but could make nothing of in the end.

this allowed youssouf mulumbu to go forward in attack as he has done before on several occassions when the the rest of the team is intentionally set out to defend. one only has to think of his late goal at bloomfield road with the baggies down to 9 men, or his brilliance and abandon when scoring away to middlesbrough last year in the CHAMPIONSHIP as the baggies capped off a 9 game unbeaten run with a 5-0 win over a hapless boro side.

while mulumbu was given yet another routine "MAN OF THE MATCH" award by the hawthorns faithful, there would have been justifiable argument to give it to simon cox. the young striker tirelessly ran the channels up front and was instrumental in both goals on the heels of his spectacular equalizer last week at white hart lane. i will expect him to start again next week against wolves.

with injuries threatening to keep club captain, chris brunt, as well as several other key players out of the line-up for the upcoming fixture at the molineux, and paul scharner due to serve a single match ban for the red-card at the hawthorns, the derby with wolves is going to be even tougher than expected.

of course, wolves will be scrapping for their very lives as a PREMIER LEAGUE club, and i know that the idea of going down at home to the albion is something that more than a few wolves' supporters will find hard to countenance. while it would be a fittingly heroic end to the best season of the modern era for the baggies, it would likewise be too cruel a fate for a wolves side that has played some good football this year.

it should make for a great derby atmosphere.

Almost Home

2011-04-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2-2 WBA

live text replay

it wasn't until a few days after the win at sunderland that i realized i could probably stop worrying.

the baggies were now on 39 points, were 11th in the table and nothing short of complete collapse would see them struggling in terms of PREMIER LEAGUE survival. there will almost certainly be top-flight football (and more £40-plus ticket prices) again at the hawthorns next season.

with the possibility of roy hodgson's appointment becoming long-term - and with an eye towards development of the club as a "consolidated" PREMIER LEAGUE commodity - we could be at the outset of a really good time at the hawthorns.

however, it's not the 1970's and top-three finishes for the baggies are an occasion long since disappeared from the realms of possibility; but, i can see, for example, maybe a successful run in one of the domestic cup competitions and/or qualifying for the EUROPA LEAGUE. who knows?

any kind of top-ten finish next season will be considered nothing short of genius management and a brilliant, shining success. right now, however, the goal will be the same as it was this year: 17th in league table or better. from a practical point of view, anything more would be highly speculative and probably unrealistic.

the hallmark of this year's albion team has been their ability to always be competitive. that is, they always played well against the top clubs and were usually able to raise their game to meet the occasion. the rather sensational arrival of peter odemwingie aside, this quality would still have its roots in the kind of side that tony mowbray was about developing, and which roberto di matteo took one step further. in fact, hodgson's genius has been to take the work and vision of the previous two gaffers and galvanize their styles and practices into a winning proposition.

and so it was at white hart lane. the baggies went head-to-head with one of the most exciting attacking teams in the PREMIER LEAGUE and came away with a thoroughly deserved point thanks to simon cox' first goal in the top-flight.

having come on as a late substition - and with the baggies chasing the game - the young striker took his opportunity as the ball fell for him at the top of the box. cox curled an unstoppable shot past a stretching heurelho gomes and into the top corner of the tottenham net for a cracking goal of the first order.

WBA 1-3 Chelsea F.C.

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what more realistic manner for the baggies' - and new gaffer, roy hodgson's - unbeaten run to come to an end than with a loss in the face of what was really a technically superior performance by the current league champions? i don't think anyone would have too many complaints or grumbles about the outcome of this one.

there was however, several minutes following peter odemwingie's 12th goal of the season - and setting a new individual club goal scoring record for a west brom team in the post-PREMIER LEAGUE era - where it looked like the baggies were going to do it again.

while chelsea gave their opposition precious little possession in the first quarter-of-an-hour, the albion went 1-0 up in the 17th minute. on what was virtually the first move forward for the baggies, the blues were caught with the backline playing too high. james morrison took advantage and put a short ball down the centre for thomas who pushed the ball on for odemingie to chip the chelsea keeper, pedr cech. there was the familiar faint wiff of another unlikely victory over one of the best teams in europe in the air.

but it was all rather short-lived as didier drogba levelled the score just minutes later. salomon kalou, and eventually frank lampard, made sure there would be no fanciful heroics from the baggies this week. chelsea were by far the batter team in all categories and the baggies never really got a foot-hold in the game.

in light of the albion's recent form this was somewhat sobering and out of character with the performances that the baggies have put in against top 5 sides this season. in fact, manchester city was the only other side in the current top 7 that the baggies have taken no points from this season in the league. they did, however, manage to knock the sky blues out of the LEAGUE CUP in the 2nd round.

as the season winds down and the baggies look more and more like they will be facing the "second season syndrome" of the PREMIER LEAGUE as their next crucial long-term test, there is little to criticize and much to be admired about our club at the moment.

Two Big Steps Closer

2011-04-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Sunderland A.F.C. 2-3 WBA

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following on their current unbeaten run - and a priceless victory over liverpool which saw the baggies move up 4 places in the table and 5 points clear of the drop - they are definitely the current form team amongst the relegation battlers. pending the next couple of results, which now loom ever more ominously with each passing round of this season's BARCLAY'S PREMIER LEAGUE competition, the albion look like they're going to survive - and perhaps even ahead of schedule where there are more than one or two teams that look like it's going to go down to the last day to decide their league status for next season.

it's still early days, but for me, this was the yar that the baggies finally arrived as a top-flight outfit in the post-PREMIER LEAGUE era. for the state of the current squad and the challenges that the club now faces, they have the best and most appropriate manager possible. big wins and good performances against world famous clubs being internationally televised have now made the baggies instantly recognizable to the mainstream sports bar soccer crowds that follow manchester united, liverpool, chelsea and arsenal in big cities all over north america every saturday morning.

in short, this was the season that "west bromwich albion" became a recognizable PREMIER LEAGUE "brand" in the developing international TV markets. even the most recent of converts to the sport and freshest of fans where i live, here in toronto, who watch and support the "big four" now immediately recognize the famous navy-and-white striped jersey as well as the throstle and hawthorn branch club badge.

people i've known for years are seeing the baggies regularly on TV now comment to me on each week's game. west bromwich albion have finally returned from the footballing wilderness and have only to claim and consolidate their rightful place amongst the mid-table regulars in the premiership. whatever happens from here on out - and provided the albion survive the PREMIER LEAGUE - i think that chairman jeremy peace can feel somewhat vindicated after years of supporter criticism as to his lack of ambition for the club.

while it was a first, and the baggies have had a history of sticking with their managers through previous unsuccessful PREMIER LEAGUE campaigns, the appointment of roy hodgson as head coach was a stroke of genius and may be the most important move in the club's recent history. thinking of it as a long term proposition, the baggies could have something really great going on at the hawthorns and for some years to come. this is where the chairman's long term plans will start to become evident and we shall see the fruition of all the years of careful - and sometimes conservative - planning that has gone into the club.

WBA 2-1 Liverpool F.C.

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while i haven't said so in a long time and i'll take this opportunity to remind myself again: this is a very good baggies team. in fact, this is the best baggies side since cyrille regis was with the club.

peter odemwingie is probably as good a buy as anyone made in the PREMIER LEAGUE this year. he is set to register a new club record for premiership goals in a season, and with 11 already to his credit there's very few players who will have been as good a return for the money spent as the nigerian striker has been for the baggies.

while he didn't add to his season's total in the game against liverpool, he was effective in winning the penalties that chris brunt went on to score as the albion broke yet another long-standing hoodoo.

roy hodgson's organization of the back four is becoming evident and they look more disciplined with each passing game. nicky shorey has nailed down the starting left-back position, and the gaffer's selection of steven reid on the right has really strengthened the defensive game down the flanks. bringing back abdoulaye meite to partner jonas olsson has been a relative stroke of genius, and gianni zuiverloon's presence on the bench indicates that a general re-appraissal has gone on in regards to at least some of the members of this year's 25-man squad.

simon cox started - as i recently predicted would happen - against sunderland in a more conventional attacking role, and was made better use of than at anytime since last season in the CHAMPIONSHIP, where he established a frighteningly good goals to game ratio. the young albion striker played what will have been his best hour of football in the PREMIER LEAGUE to date. after missing a point-blank scoring opportunity on a truly great save by sunderland's belgian international, simon mignolet, the young striker put in a performance comprised of an enterprising work-rate, non-stop running and strong support play in getting into some good attacking positions around the box.

the gaffer has been responsible for the rehabilitation of scott carson after the albion goalie lost both form and confidence in a disastrous performance away to fulham back in january. his reshuffling of the first team has also strengthened his options in regards to substitutes. marek cech, for example, has played some of his most useful football as back-up for the defensive midfield duo of youssouf mulumbu and paul scharner. hodgson has even found the impact player coming off the bench that the baggies have been missing this last couple of years in carlos vela. the mexican international scored both late goals, at home to wolves and away to stoke respectivley, which earned two late draws for the albion and kick-started their present unbeaten run.

while there are two tough home games, and what would be expected a difficult away fixture with tottenham before the baggies travel to the molineaux to play a wolves side who will as likely as not be fighting for their premiership lives. the baggies will almost certainly be safe by then. the general concensus is that 3 points will do it, and on their current form, the albion should be able take all three at home to the villa... at least, that's what i'm expecting. if they can take anything from either of their games with the two london clubs, that would be a bonus.

given the PREMIER LEAGUE fixture list over the next five or six weeks, it's even quite possible that the 39 points which they already have will be enough to keep them up.

unlike what roy hodgson accomplished at fulham two years ago, he seems to have hit the ground running at the hawthorns and his fine tuning of the defensive organization without disrupting the attacking qualities of the albion has been the secret to his success so far. while they are just on the verge - and i stress again, whatever happens from this point out - this will be the year that the baggies really arrived as serious team ready to play in the PREMIER LEAGUE. they have already outperformed - and by a wide margin - any west brom team that has waged a top-flight campaign in 30 years, and the foundation for future PREMIER LEAGUE competition now seems well established.

this is a huge moment in the club's history and if the baggies can get it right in their last few matches of the season, they might be able to go on and have something fantastic at the hawthorns for years to come.

WBA 2-2 Arsenal F.C.

2011-03-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

live text replay

quite incredibly, roy hodgson's west bromwich albion team came within fifteen minutes of doing the double over the arsenal, after winning at the emirates in september and holding them to a draw in this reverse fixture at the hawthorns.

there aren't too many teams in the PREMIER LEAGUE who can boast having taken 4-points from the arsenal in the course of a season. the baggies are now five games undefeated under hodgson, but despite the evident positives, the baggies are still looking for what-would-be only their second win under the new gaffer. they came close in this one, and only the gunners' superior skills and a little bit of luck saved them the point in the end.

the first noticable change that hodgson brought to the albion was to revise the playing shape from a strict 4-5-1 - which roberto di matteo started using at half-time in a match against newcastle united in last year's CHAMPIONSHIP and rarely deviated from after that - for a more defensive minded 4-4-2. this was revealed in the wolves game, with both marc-antoine fortune and peter odemwingie featured in the strikers positions. considering that the gaffer is bit more the tactician than your average manager, this was probably not altogether unexpected.

the surprise has been in the re-evaluation of certain members of the first team and how the personnel were being used. the most unexpected move, of course, has been the shrewd re-introduction of abdoulaye meite in partnering jonas olsson at centre-half. he has also been responsible for the rehabilitation of scott carson, who's playing has been much improved since his recent lay-off, and putting 30-year old irish international, steven reid, at right-back has been nothing short of a revelation. returning nicky shorey to starting left-back was long over-due, and his intelligent use of marek cech as a substitute in a defensive midfield position is obvious, but effective. the gaffer has even voiced an interest in the possibility of bringing ishmael miller back to the club. i'm even expecting simon cox to make a starting appearance soon.

hodgson knows what a player is capable of and never defers to popular or fashionable opinion about his footballers.

what hodgson has been able to do since coming to west brom is tighten up the defense, both at the back and in midfield, without detracting from the attacking flair for which the baggies are known. both youssouf mulumbu and paul scharner have scored goals recently, while players like james morrison and chris brunt are covering their defensive duties more constistently. the strike pairing of marc-antoine fortune with the high-scoring peter odemwingie always looks dangerous, especially when playing together on the break. playing in tandem with a big, strong centre-forward lends another dimension to odemwingie's game; as was clearly illustrated in the recent match with wolves.

despite the lack of wins, the baggies are definitely considered a form team at the moment and everyone knows the relatively high quality of football that they are currently playing.

while i think most albion fans were happy with the point, i was a little disappointed and thought the baggies were going to win this one. andre arshavin scored a goal of such quality that it was literally unstoppable, and the arsenal were lucky with the equalizer following a fortuitous cross which came banging back off scott carson's far post and robin van persie's slightest of touches being just enough to just edge the ball over the line past a wrong-footed abdoulaye meite.

other than the arshavin goal, however, the baggies were the better team all day and probably deserved the win. especially as they were down to 10-men and protecting a 1-0 lead for a full seven minutes of the first-half, with james morrison requiring four or five stitches in his head following a collision with an arsenal defender.

while i was absolutley elated with the last minute equalizer against wolves (especially as i was there), i was converseley and equally disappointed that the baggies didn't hang on and win this one. they had the better chances and dominated the game completely.

the baggies took the lead in the 3rd minute on a steven reid goal scored from a free-header on the first corner-kick of the game.

after throwing up a stern defensive performance in the first-half, which saw both james morrison and paul scharner recieving pretty bad head injuries (the latter having to come off at half-time), the baggies went 2-0 up on a dreadful mistake by manuel almunia. coming out of his area for a ball he should never have come for, and creating a mix-up with his defender, sebastien squillaci, the arsenal keeper left peter odemwingie an opportunity to take advantage and cleverly roll the ball into an open net.

with the baggies on an unbeaten run under roy hodgson, and with a resurgent liverpool coming to the hawthorns in two week's time, the baggies have their work cut out for them in keeping the gaffer's record intact.

Birmingham City F.C. 1-3 WBA

2011-03-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

match text commentary

roy hodgson's first victory in charge of the albion extended the baggies current unbeaten streak to four games. while this was the all important win the albion have been looking for this last month or so - and further contributes to the baggies keeping themselves just one step ahead of dropping into the relegation places - it emphasizes that the baggies are stuck with some tough fixtures ahead and didn't take nearly enough points in their last three home games. one thing is for sure: they're going to have to take three-to-four points from their next three home games; and with those being arsenal, liverpool and chelsea, the baggies are going to have to come up with some serious heroics. however, it's been that kind of year and the albion have generally played well against top-ten opposition.

there is something more confident and consistant about the albion since roy hodgson's arrival. even the the media pundits (like the BBC's, mark lawrenson, for example) who've never generally been too positive about the possibilities of an extended stay in the top-flight for the baggies - are now picking three or four other teams as more likely to face the drop this year. the general consensus - and the among the supporters as well - seems to be that this albion team will find a way to survive.

by the same token, it is generally agreed that wigan athletic are the only side that really look like they are indeed going down from amongst the other relegation battlers . the question is: who is going down with them? at the moment, the albion seem to have a firm grip on 16th-17th spot(s). it's quite likely that blackburn, aston villa and blackpool - along with the baggies, blues, wolves and west ham - will be fighting their way out of ending up in one of the other two relegation places come the final day of the season.

this was the baggies first "double" of the season, after having beaten blues by the same score back at the hawthorns in the middle of september.

to be fair, it was going to be a difficult day for a city team which had just won the LEAGUE CUP against the arsenal, in what must have been an absolute drain both physically and emotionally. while the score was nil-nil at the half, the baggies had looked the better of the two teams with the blues supplying little in the way of match highlights. the baggies have generally done well following scoreless first periods and by the time they had kicked-off for the second-half, they were tuned up and ready to play some dominating football.

the baggies went ahead on a goal by youssouf mulumbu scored within two minutes of the restart. the congolese midfielder played a pass to peter odemwingie, who had taken up a central position on the edge of the city penalty area. the nigerian international held the ball up long enough for mulumbu to get forward into the area, and taking the return ball on an overlapping run, finished superbly to give the albion a deserved lead. the next few days will tell, but it might have been a costly goal indeed, as mulumbu was simultaneously clattered by birmingham centre-half, liam ridgewell, and appeared to have taken a hard knock on the thigh.

however, and in typical fashion, blues pulled one back less than a minute later. lee bowyer, making a run down the right flank, gambled on a short-cross to the near post. birmingham city striker and chilean international, jean beausejour had gotten in behind the baggies' defenders and glanced the ball into the net past scott carson. while it is not uncommon to switch off for a moment following a goal celebration, beausejour's goal just reminded us again that the baggies still have moments of vulnrability at the back and seem committed to doing it the hard way.

however, besides reviving the squad through bringing unused and forgotten players back into the team and tightening up the shape of the back four, roy hodgson has instilled a bit of steel and confidence throughout the entire squad, and they took the lead again on 57 minutes through a typical james morrison goal. the albion midfielder took control of a cross from the right wing at the top of blues penalty area and taking a single touch to give himself room for the shot, blasted a perfectly placed strike past blues goalie, ben foster. he certainly doesn't score tap-ins and morrison has scored several similar goals this season, including west brom's first against manchester united at the hawthorns.

from here, the baggies never looked back.

while david bentley got the opportunity of two good long-range strikes, scott carson had them both covered, and it was only on a near miss by cameron jerome, which trickled just wide of the baggies' goal that blues ever looked dangerous coming forward. even kevin phillips coming off the bench as substitute could find nothing against his former club.

the baggies clinched the full three-points - and the first victory since their home fixture with blackpool - keeping, as they have been, just ahead of the drop-zone; and sending the newly crowned LEAGUE CUP champions into the bottom three ahead of only wigan, at this point.

paul scharner effectively finished the match off in the 71st minute as he sent a james morrison cross back across the face goal at the far-post sneaking the ball past blues goalie, ben foster, from an acute angle. the final score accurately reflected the trajectory of the game and the baggies fully deserved the win.

with an unfortunatley scheduled international break in three weeks time, and the possibility of their next league fixture falling prey to postponement pending the outcome of the upcoming FA CUP games, the baggies might not play again until april 2nd. we can only hope that manchester united puts arsenal out of the competition and the gunners will be at the hawthorns - as scheduled - in two weeks time. this will not only see the albion trying to extend their current unbeaten run, but will also give the baggies a timely opportunity at posting their second double of the season, having beaten the gunners at the emirates back in the late days of september.

as i said, west brom may have to secure their place in next season's PREMIER LEAGUE by doing it the hard way and taking points from the most difficult of their fixtures. however, and with roy hodgson now beginning to exert his influence on the team, they are exhuding a feeling of confidence and are playing like a side that is setting itself out for top-flight survival. i think they might just be capable of pulling it off.

Stoke City F.C. 1-1 WBA

2011-03-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

live text replay

there was no same day coverage of this match on TV in my part of the world, so i had to wait 36 hours before i had a chance to actually see this one. i did of course listen live on ALBION RADIO.

there isn't a baggies supporter alive who would expect to come away from a match at the britannia stadium with any more than what they got; and this was absolutely the best performance against a stoke city team in the last few years.

tony pulis, besides appearing to be one of the least likable personalities in english football, has discovered a formula for survival in the PREMIER LEAGUE which is generally within the means of resources available to a large community based club like stoke city. it doesn't do much for football - in fact, it' a kind of "anti"-football - but it does manage to procure top-flight survival and the lucrative television contract which goes along with it. after all, this is the real goal for any team who will never compete for anything more than a mid-table finish in the league. the TV money is everything!

stoke city f.c. - one of the 12 original FOOTBALL LEAGUE teams - play a tough, defensive game that would be more generously characterized as "hard" and are unusually reliant on dead-ball situations from which to fashion scoring opportunities. in fact, they have become known in the last few years for their use of the long throw-in as a primary weapon of attack, utilizing the talents of their throw-in specialist, rory delap. tony pulis' main tactic is to slow everything down and protracted possession is relatively unimportant. they are a much physically bigger team than average and it seems at times like they're playing with five centre-halfs. while being a solidly based defensive side, they are long-time proponents of the single striker formation and are most effective on the counter-attack. they also have a very good goalie.

whatever the individual and/or collective merits of these two sides, this match was painfully average, but might have caught the interest of the neutral or passing television viewer as it was a close game with a low score. but in an exclusively audio medium it would have held no interest whatsoever. there were dismally long gaps in the commentary in which dave bowler and chris dunn were simple running out of things to say. i mean, how many times can you have a laugh over rory delap taking the better part of a minute to wipe down a ball and get on with a simple throw-in? stoke city used up so time at every stoppage that the match never really seemed to get going. the ALBION RADIO was lost for words. it would seem that the potters' general tactic is to drag the opposition's game down and instigate a kind of battle of atrition in which they themselves look to just "nick it" in the end. this would seem to be a general outline of any stoke city game plan.

i could be argued that it's been a successful and relatively quick consolidation as a competitive PREMIER LEAUGE club for the potters, but you'd be hard-pressed to find much positive to say about their football.

the TV was much better than it was as audio transmission, but there's no getting away from it: this was by-and-large a dull game.

roy hodgson made some bold and, i thought, intelligent changes to the side which he had put out against wolves. first and foremost was the return of scott carson as the starting goalie. seeing as how there is little to choose between him and boaz myhill, it was probably the right thing to do in regards to carson's rehabilitation after having his confidence evaporate following a string of poor performances.

but the big surprise on the day was the return to the team of abdoulaye meite, one of the albion's forgotten men. while he did the job when he was asked to in contributing to last year's promotion campaign, he had been largely over-looked as "unsuitable" to play in the PREMIER LEAGUE and was not a particular fan favourite. hodgson, however, remembered that meite was indeed an experienced top-flight centre-half who had not only seen a couple of patchy periods where his confidence was shot, but had also played some very good football at this level during the course of his career.

the baggies looked much better all around for the changes. meite was the best partner that jonas olsson has had all year; and another partnership, that of youssouf mulumbu and paul scharner has definitely begun to gel in the midfield holding positions.

as it had been against wolves, it was the predatory instincts of carlos vela that saved this one late on for the albion. he has proved an instant hero at the hawthorns and given meaning to the idea of west brom being a team who plays with intention for the full 90 minutes.

the important thing at the end of the day is that the baggies got a result and have started a small run of games unbeaten. however, if the albion are to survive, this was the signal that they're going to do it the hard way... theoretically, at least. after three straight home draws against wigan, west ham, and wolves, it will be arsenal, chelsea and liverpool who will be visiting the hawthorns next, and the baggies will have to target at least one win from this set of home fixtures.

in the meantime, it is a trip down the road to st. andrews next, and another chance for the baggies to do their first double of the season over local rivals birmingham city.

i'm glad that roy hodgson's taken over and i think he's in for the long-haul. he's brought back meite and shown interest in the progress that ishamel miller is looking to make at QPR. these are players that i think roberto di matteo had just about discounted outright, so i think that hodgson already may see more potential in his resources than the previous gaffer did. let's hope he can use them to the desired effect.

Tour of the Midlands and Black Country Derby

2011-02-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

travelling from abroad to get to the first ever PREMIER LEAGUE black country derby provided some of the most ridiculous logistics and implementation of contingencies that i have ever encountered in making plans to travel and attend any function, anywhere and at any time in my life. but in the end... finally worth it, i think.

besides coming back for the baggies' derby with their biggest rivals, i also wanted to squeeze in a couple of additional matches to make up for the football i had missed at christmas.

first off, the match had been scheduled for the 18th of december, but - like almost all other fixtures in england that day - ran afoul of the unexpectedly bad weather. with FA CUP games still to be replayed, the match was initially rescheduled for february 22nd. however, we were all well aware that the west midlands police were going to request that the match be moved to a noon kick-off over the cup's 5th round weekend should both the baggies and wolves get knocked out of the competition prior to this. at the time of rescheduling, however, both teams were still involved.

the albion were promptly knocked out by their cup nemesis reading, who put them out of the competition both this year and last, while wolves survived through a draw with doncaster rovers. at this point, it was a matter of waiting for the results of the 4th round replays and subsequent draw for round five before making any definite travel plans.

i was already taking no chances and knew i had to be in the midlands - and within an hour of birmingham - if indeed the black country derby was going to be played on the saturday. in light of this, i planned a trip to stoke for port vale's friday night home game with bradford city. this would leave me well enough situated with enough time to get to the hawthorns for a noon kick-off should wolves lose their replay with doncaster. they did not.

i was now left waiting on the result from wolves 5th round home fixture with stoke city.

in the meantime, i had changed my plans to travel to stoke on the friday in favour of a night game at leicester with bristol city as the visitors.

wolves were then knocked out of the cup in a 1-0 loss to stoke city at the molineux. knowing that the west midlands police would take quick steps to change the date, i had to wait for the outcome of the cup draws set to be played on the 19th.

birmingham city, after their 3-2 win over coventry, were drawn in a home fixture against sheffield wednesday. i now knew that the west brom/wolves game wouldn't be moved to the saturday with a cup game at st. andrews on the same day.

i was now free to book my ticket with a departure date that would see me in london on the 16th and departing on the 23rd. this would mean travelling to the leicester on friday. i would then go to birmingham, anyway, for the FA CUP game at blues and then return for baggies/wolves match on the last night of my trip. but i had not figured on the fact that they might move the match to a sunday. which, of course, is what they did.

all the better! i was at the walkers stadium on friday, st. andrews on saturday - and after spending the night in birmingham, i was at the hawthorns, as planned, for a noon kick-off on the 20th of february.

Leicster City F.C. 2-1 Bristol City F.C.

i found leicester a very pleasant experience with a surprising gate of 29,000 on a friday night. while i have a suspicion that there are more than a few fair-weather fans who were there in support of the team's current success, i had not realized how big a club leicester city really is. in my short time in the city i encountered an extensive and serene university campus, a big modern rugby stadium, a large park named in honour of nelson mandela and an obviously lively downtown club scene - and most of this on my walk to the match from the hotel.

of course, among other players of note, i got a chance to see david james in goal for bristol city.

from the point of view of the neutral, this was a terrific match. after an early leicester goal by yakubu and bristol city equalizer, the bulk of the matched was played poised on a 1-1 scoreline. bristol city played a really top notch game, keeping it tight with a sound defensive formation and then exerting a high tempo attack with a really good spell of possession late on. tactically, and as the away team, they went for the win at the right time. the home team responded, though, with some late defending to preserve at least a draw, before substitute, martin waghorn, scored the winner in injury time. an excellent evening's entertainment and another positive advert for CHAMPIONSHIP football.

Birmingham City F.C. 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

my first trip to blues was a bit of a disappointment. the fans of our local rivals are a rough and barbaric inner-city cousin to the evidently more cultured black country folk from up the road. i felt uncomfortable in supporting blues (something i wouldn't usually do), but in light of it not being a league match and birmingham city being the club from whom i had purchased my ticket, i felt obliged to exchange my navy for royal blue - just for a few hours, anyway.

while i did consider the initial option of purchasing my ticket from sheffield wednesday, i wouldn't travel with visiting supporters other than the albion (or brentford, for whom i have a soft spot) under any circumstance whatsoever. even travelling with the baggies can be a bit rowdy for my liking, and the visiting supporters section is never the best place to watch the match from.

i also felt a bit confined as i had a bored steward sitting at the end of the adjoining block of seats, so i refrained from taking my usual photo of the kick-off.

there was an unfriendly feeling about the place. from the ridiculously cramped little club shop, or a line-up for the toilet at half-time, to the stadium's dreary highway landscape surrounding, it was all curiously unwelcoming. it certainly ai' the hawthorns!!! while i have always admired blues website for its extensive media content and quality of its online ticket service, i found the place itself bleak and cold.

i was seated, however, next to a charming middle-aged woman who was an obviously enthusiatic blues supporter. we commented on the impressive display of the sheffield wednesday supporters. she pointed out a character known as "mr. tango", who was, of course some ridiculously over-weight yorkshireman invariably wearing no shirt and boldly leading the rowdy but good natured wednesday support in song, dance and general party spirit.

"brilliant. isn't he?" she asked rhetorically.

i was most uncomfortable with her friendly attentions and having to feign any real feelings for blues.

"it's nice to have an early goal for once," she beamed following the home side's opener in the first few minutes.

"yes," i said, nodding my head in an attempt to display my support.

i have to give her credit. she was the best of sports fans, acknowledging a good tackle on the part of the owls as well as the better efforts of her obviously beloved blues. she would unconcsiously clutch at my shoulder as a birmingham city break would develop or a long range shot would go whistling over the wednesday goal.

"megson's doin' 'is nut," she pointed out in regards to the owls' new manager.

sure enough, sitting on the opposite side of the field from the dugouts you could hear him loud and clear screaming at this players in utter frustration. he was indeed "doin' 'is nut".

while blues scored early on through new signing, obafemi martins, and eventually won the match 3-0, i was most impressed by the travelling wednesday support. they outsang, outdanced and outchanted the home supporters all day long, and numbering 5,000 in a gate which only saw a 14,000 total, they constituted no mean presence. even after going 3-nil down they just kept jumping up and down and singing:

always look on the bright side of life,
da-doo da-doo da-do da-doo

it was absolutely brilliant and i can only hope that baggies support would be so good if ever faced with the generally dire situation that sheffield wednesday find themselves in at the moment - and besides not playing very good football on the day.

the coolest thing about going to blues was that i got to see kevin phillips play, as he came on as substitute at the beginning of the second half. while the game was already over, i'm happy to have merely seen him run around the pitch a bit, perpetually strolling back from an offside position and helping to kill the game off for birmingham city as they continue their good cup form this year. here was a blues players i was happy to cheer for and would've liked to see score.

i was happy enough to hear the final whistle and caught a taxi back to new street station, where i picked up my bags from the left luggage service and walked across the street to the COMFORT INN.

WBA 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

live text replay

i was up at 7.30 the next morning and aiming to catch a local train to the hawthorns at 10.30. i checked out of the hotel and again left my travelling bag and laptop at the left luggage service. with plenty of time to get there i meandered over to snow hill station and had a smoke before embarking for the trains.

as soon as i caught sight of the stadium i knew i was back in familiar territory. i smiled inwardly at the sense of belonging i experienced as the strangeness and cold feeling from having been at blues the day before dropped away. i was happy and confident of an albion victory. i had arrived.

i wasn't sure what to expect. i certainly hadn't seen any wolves supporters around the city centre or anywhere on the trains, and wasn't surprised to see that the gates for the visitors entrance at the smethwick end of the ground were closed and an unusually high police presence controlling the immediate area. without too much inspection or scrutiny of the situation i figured i'd walk round the long way and come in through the east stand parking lot.

the club shop was lively with action, there was a qeue at the ticket office, and a monstrous stretch limo was parked in front of reception. with the fact of a first ever PREMIER LEAGUE black country derby, both baggies and wolves desperately needing a result and roy hodgson making his debut in charge of west brom, it was certainly an auspicious and historic occassion.

it was evident, even without youssouf mulumbu in the side, that hodgson had done some tightening up of the back four and reset out how the midfield was going to defend. still, it was evident to most of us that gonzalo jara was still sitting way too far infield, allowing too much space for wolves' left-winger, matt jarvis, to go forward in.

unfortunately, it just wasn't one of the classics that we'll be watching on video for years to come. both teams were cautious, given the occassion and the critical need for league points in an approaching relegation battle. the baggies first-half performance was again disjointed and uneven due to the lack of youssouf mulumbu in central midfield, but the baggies did produce a couple of good opportunites that required timely reactions from wolves goalie, wayne hennessy. jonas olsson came close on a chris brunt corner-kick but his effort was saved. paul scharner then put in a header that curled just wide of the visitors goal. all in all, it was wolves defenders who had the better of the first 20 minutes or so.

the old-gold went ahead, scoring through a free-kick some three or four yards outside the albion penalty area. the move was simplicity itself and taken straight from training ground routines on set-pieces. with two wolves players hanging over the ball and the baggies forming up a wall, jostling for good defensive positions and picking up their marks inside the box, the ball was played square to midfielder jamie o'hara who had peeled off the back of the wolves front line and moved out of the box to a high central position some 20-25 yards out.

it was a clever move and and o'hara's curling shot beat albion keeper, boaz myhill, and nestled firmly in the top right-hand corner. there wasn't much that could be done about it, and myhill was caught holding only a slightly higher position than would have been necessary to make the save. given the height and distance of the shot, however, questioning the welsh number two's positioning is speculative at best.

while the visitors section of the smethwick went wild, the rest of us groaned at a circumstance with which we are all too familiar. the baggies were a goal down with only about 5 minutes of the first-half left to play.

the albion thoroughly dominated the second-half but not before matt jarvis - who had the beating of gonzalo jara all day - came close to putting the old-gold up 2-0 when a miscued header by a back-tracking paul scharner fell perfectly for the wolves winger to score their second five minutes in to the second period. however, boaz myhill's quick reacton in coming out to cover the angles forced jarvis' shot wide of the albion goal.

the baggies then again came close as jonas olsson beat wayne hennessy only to see his effort cleared off the line by matt jarvis, making up for his miss from a few minutes earlier. wolves, it seemed, were riding their luck a bit and depended on the good form of their welsh international goalie.

after carlos vela was brought on, the baggies upped the tempo and kept attacking the stout wolves defence. the mexican winger forced hennessy into a top-notch save as his low, hard blast at goal deflected off the back of wolves defender, karl henry, which could have easily seen the baggies draw level. the move finally ended with an over-cooked cross from albion striker, marc-antoine fortune. time was just beginning to slip away with less than 15 minutes normal time left on the clock.

what looked to be the baggies' best chance of the match went begging when fortune found himself wrong-footed as the ball ran past him directly in front of a gaping wolves' goal. as the 90 minute mark approached, some of the less optimistic baggies supporters started to make their way from the ground. it just did not appear to be albion's day.

however, and with 4 minutes injury time to be played, the baggies kept pressing and finally equalized in dramatic fashion with almost 92 minutes gone on the clock. steven reid moved the ball forward into space and this helped to fashion a 12 yard effort from midfielder james morrison. the initial shot was saved but bobbled by hennessy and carlos vela picked up the rebound to equalize in the most dramatic of fashions.

the hawthorns went wild. the day was saved. i wondered why anybody leaves a football match with only a 1 goal difference before the final whistle, as i thought of the baggies support that had made an early exit only to miss the high drama at game's end.

there are some draws that feel like a loss and some that feel like a win. this one felt a bit like a win and everybody save the wolves supporters were definitely buoyed by the baggies earning a late draw in a match they might just as easily have won.

even at this early stage of his tenure, roy hodgson's influence could already be felt in the way that the baggies approached this game, and there will no doubt be several essential changes he will make in regards to the starting squad over the next few weeks. for his first match in charge, hodgson did ok.

while it wasn't the high that one gets from a definitive win, i was happy with the result and returned to the west country feeling fine. my short tour of the midlands had found its satisfying end.

WBA 3-3 West Ham United

2011-02-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

live text replay

this was unbelievable, and once again, a fascinating comparison of the differing and inherant qualities of football as audio commentary and football as TV content.

this match didn't get a first TV airing until 8 PM EST in the part of the world where i live. so i had been living with the result and my own experience of the match for several hours, as i had heard it on the ALBION RADIO before i actually saw it.

i am always amazed that radio, or digital audio commentaries on the internet create an environment of more intense involvement on the part of the "user"; that is to say, the "viewer" or "listener". the drama is heightened, the mistakes more crucial, the experience more critical, the level of attention more immediately demanding in an audio environement. audio commentary, tending to be more diverse and playing to smaller, more specialized interests, is also, therefore, more inclined to be partisan. radio has always been the medium of propaganda.

television is a cool, detached, objective scanning of visual information. it is the medium of the short attention span and constant diversion. it also the medium of the mainstream and this creates an environment where the presentation tends to be non-partisan, non-judgmental and wholly less critical. it is also more concerned with entertainment rather than the straight dissemination of information and user involvement.

for example, i always feel better watching a TV replay of a disappointing result after having heard it first on the ALBION RADIO. where the baggies' biased commentary on the ALBION RADIO transmissions often has me hopping up and down at the injustice perpetrated by a referee, or a missed penalty kick, the televised match gives me an objective vantage point - and presented as such - with a chance to assess in a cool, detached manner what i've seen (or even what i think i've seen), finding both sympathy and condemnation therein.

any of those of us who thought that michael appleton - by virtue of his long-time involvment at the club as well as coaching badges and accreditations acquired - might make as good a manager as any number of other young candidates, were as naive as appy himself in thinking he might be able to do the job.

michael appleton's managerial debut was a painfully schizophrenic experience that ran the gamut from merciless attacking football to completely inept and gutless defending. it was so extreme that it took me several hours to figure out what had happened after having listened to it. by the time the game came on TV it was merely a confirmation of what i had imagined.

appleton picked more or less the same team that di matteo has been playing - and given the current injury situation - but his substitutions were absolutley ludicrous.

the baggies started off like a pack of hunting dogs unleashed. in what might later turn out to be the most significant moment of the match, graham dorrans opened his PREMIER LEAGUE scoring account inside of three minutes with an effort that just doesn't get any better. taking a pass into space from peter odemwingie, and a full 25-30 yards out, the young scottish international confidently struck an unstoppable ball past west ham keeper, robert green, burying it in the top corner of the net.

it was a spectacular start.

with barely seven minutes gone, it was then jerome thomas' turn to add to his season's tally. the albion winger took a ball which was layed back from marc-antoine fortune and attacking from the top corner of the box had a good enough angle to side-foot the ball past wayne hennessy in the wolves goal. the hawthorns was jumping and the albion were 2-0 up.

four minutes later, thomas, once again looking menacing at the end of a quick and incisive counter attack, looked to be have been pulled down by winston reid in the west ham box after having gone round goalkeeper, hennessy. however, play was waved on and the baggies once again look to be victim of a referee's reluctance to give a penalty which would necessitate a red-card.

peter odemwingie should have made it 3-0, as he was allowed a free-header on a graham dorrans' corner-kick, but unfortunately put the ball straight at wayne hennessy.

it was at this point, however, that the match began to change complexion.

youssouf mulumbu, arguably the baggies most important defensive player in the current team formation, was forced to come off due to a tightening hamstring. while it would still take some time before the woeful west ham defending started to close down better, carlton cole would have had a goal but for a questionable offside decision in the 23rd minute.

a certain justice was served in regards to the earlier non-call on the penalty appeal, when in the 31st minute, the baggies did go 3 goals up through a winston reid own-goal. the west ham defender completely midjudged another dorrans' corner-kick and directed the ball into an open net whilst coming from the back to defend it.

as good as the baggies attacking game was, the hammers' defending was every bit as bad. it was training ground looking stuff.

with a a 3 goal lead, and watching from the stands, roy hodgson must have been feeling like he'd walked into an absolute dream job, and that keeping this group of players in the PREMIER LEAGUE would be little problem once he got hands on the reigns.

the baggies even looked good defensively in the first-half. boaz myhill made a fantastic save from hammers' striker demba ba - after the hammers started to come back into the match a little - which bounced off the post and was ultimately cleared off the line by james morrison. the albion looked like tight, together and dangerous.

the second-half was a completely different story.

youssouf mulumbu's early exit began to reveal just how much of a turning point it had actually been.

following what quickly became a legendary half-time talk delivered by west ham captain, scott parker, the hammers came back from the break and within five minutes had their first goal. mark noble delivered a perfect chip ball into demba ba that backfooted the albion defenders, and was controlled and brought down well by the hammers' striker - albeit with a hint of handball - and finished for the away team's opening goal. even at this early point in a match that had heretofore been dominated by the baggies, there was an uneasy feeling that started to go round the hawthorns. every albion fan over the age of 15 remembered the famous 4-3 win at upton park which had seen the baggies down by the same 3 goals-to-nil margin at half-time and was won eventually by a lee hughes' goal.

again, it was a set piece that was the baggies' undoing on the second west ham goal. it came a mark noble free-kick that was floated across the albion penalty area, where a completely unmarked frederic piquionne headed back across goal for carlton cole to score the simplest of headers. a few minutes later, piquionne himself put a deftly crossed header off the bar and away for a goal kick. the baggies looked lucky to be hanging on.

not that they didn't create more chances themselves, but peter odemwingie was guilty of some weak finishes, especially two missed chances towards the end of the game. but more than anything it was michael appleton's ludicrous substitutions and decision to defend using a narrow formation, allowing the west ham wide players room to operate down the wings and ignite positive attacks that cost the baggies full points. it's no wonder that the albion central defenders were terrified and constantly caught backpeddling.

the final score in west ham's redemtion came in the 83rd minute from a shortly taken corner-kick that caught the baggies out. mark noble once again floated in a cross that was flicked on for demba ba to score the equalizer and his second of the game.

michael appleton, dean keily and anyone else who was temporarily elevated to a position of increased responsibilty for this match, as the club wait for monday and for roy hodgeson to take over, must have had a real learning experience and it was certainly was a baptism of fire.

roy hodgson has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of what he's got to work with, in a situation that cannot escape its parellel comparisons to the conditions of his taking over at fulham, where he was similarly brought in to rescue the team's PREMIER LEAGUE status following the sacking of lawrie sanchez.

it's not an impossible task, but hodgson has less time than he did at fulham, and a tough schedule to oversee. with his initial match in charge being the hawthorns leg of the black country derby, the baggies are running out of what would seem to be winnable matches with a trip to stoke city to follow and a local derby away to blues after that.

Roberto di Matteo's Last Game

2011-02-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

Manchester City F.C. 3-0 WBA

live text replay

it was all a bit of a surprise when RDM was originally given the newly created job of "head coach" upon tony mowbray's departure to manage celtic. at the time, his appointment seemed perplexing and certainly many doubted the managerial pedigree of the man whose only previous experience in management was to take mkdons to a LEAGUE 1 playoff spot the year before.

i was expecting someone more along the lines of derek mcinnes, or perhaps one of his contemporaries in the likes of john hughes. mcinnes had done well in scottish football management (much like TM before him) and had also been popular with the supporters from his days as an albion player. john hughes' name never came up.

di matteo, however, had an immediate and profound impact at the hawthorns, starting the 2009-10 CHAMPIONSHIP campaign with a 9 game unbeaten run, ultimately leading them to automatic promotion and a new points-total record for the club. he then saw the albion through its best start ever to a PREMIER LEAGUE season with a fair run of successful results - including a 3-2 win over the arsenal at the emirates and a hard-fought 2-2 draw at old trafford.

RDM won the supporters over to his cause by posting good results. but when the baggies went to bloomfield road in the beginning of november it all started to unravel. we all remember michael oliver's red-card decision (since rescinded) against pablo ibanez and gonzalo jara unable to control his temper seeing the baggies finish the match with 9-men and losing to the tangerines by a score of 2-1. this was followed by a listless performance in a home defeat to manchester city. nobody suspected at the time just how bad this was going to get, as the baggies have gone on to lose 13 out of their next 18 games and dropping 15 places in the league table.

this was also the point where we started to see the cracks and flaws in RDM's approach.

while there were hints of it last year, this season has demonstrated that the gaffer is not the best "man-manager" in the business, and makes it quite plain - as reflected in his team selections - how he feels about certain players. what is never clear is whether his issues with particular individuals are purely football related or personal in nature. everybody remembers how di matteo alienated robert koren, ultimately forcing him to leave the club.

it was also pretty obvious that he had no use for roman bednar in the PREMIER LEAGUE, and i'm not sure how well his attitude towards the czech striker went over with the supporters. bednar was always a popular player at the hawthorns and even keeping him on the bench was a good tactical decision in that his presence lent a positive energy to the atmosphere. you could always get a little excitment out of the hawthorns' crowd merely by sending him out to warm-up along the touchline.

why hasn't he been playing nicky shorey?

i don't think that there's an albion fan who hasn't asked themselves this particular question in the last two months.

and with a defence that has literally fallen apart over the last three months, why has he kept the same full-backs in the team week after week and leaves pablo ibanez on the bench in favour of paul scharner?

this culminated in the truly bizarre starting line-up against manchester city that put marc-antoine fortune on the right-wing and simon cox in central midfield. this all smacked of a man desperately clutching at straws. and it is this fact that gives the game away. di matteo has probably been at odds with the board and structure of the club for some time longer than had heretofore been suspected.

the news leaking out of the hawthorns today would seem to indicate that the situation between di matteo and the board has been strained since before christmas, and that he had also lost the confidence of the players at this point.

this was evident in the wholly gutless, inept performance by the baggies at eastlands, losing 3-0 to manchester city.

i never imagined that i would like him personally, or that he was someone who i'd want to know, but he did a great job with the baggies in the CHAMPIONSHIP and he certainly had my enthusiastic support last year. the baggies' famous win at arsenal under his leadership will remain his personal legacy in west bromwich albion folklore for the post PREMIER LEAGUE era. he has achieved something positive in his time at the club, and leaves them an improved team since his arrival.

i can safely say that sam allardyce will not be coming the hawthorns. it is potentially too divisive an appointement. i imagine that they will go after roy hodgson first. after what he was able to do at fulham, he's probably more than equipped to meet a similar challenge now at west brom. and the timing is good with the baggies still not having dropped into the bottom three - yet.

the next few days and weeks will tell the tale, but jeremy peace and the board have taken a tremendous gamble and put their integrity on the line as choosing this particular moment in time in which to part company with di matteo and his staff. if the baggies stay up, they'll have made a brilliant managerial decision. by the same token, they will have failed and be personally responsible if the baggies poor form persists and an inevitable relegation battle is unsuccessful.

WBA 2-2 Wigan Athletic F.C.

2011-02-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

live text replay

as i often do in the case of delayed TV broadcast of a match, i listened to this one live on ALBION RADIO, then was able to watch the game on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA almost immediately following its conclusion. i was once again struck how different the two media are. an entertaining game on TV is not always so engaging as audio commentary.

technically, this was a pretty poor game of football. while both the baggies and latics have been lauded for their good football, expansive passing games and enterprising strikers, they are both defensively poor. while the baggies just edged this one (in fact, they could have won this match 6 times over in the last 15 minutes) they still did not get the result they really deserved and set-pieces were once again their undoing.

roberto di matteo has finally realized that his team must play with a certain amount of abandon from the outset, and his re-jigging of tactics paid off early on as peter odemwingie, the club's top goal-scorer on the year, put the albion uncharacteristically ahead in the 5th minute. while there were also one or two shakey moments at the back early on, the gaffer deserves credit for inspiring the team to play in a manner with which the baggies will have to approach home games for the rest of the season, regardless of the opposition.

for the next 20 minutes the baggies looked to be in full control of the match and created a truly buoyant atmosphere at the hawthorns. a solid defensive performance would see this one out and maybe even create the possibility of more goals if they could stretch wigan sufficiently as the match wore on and the latics would increasingly need to chase the game. however, and much as they had done in the 2008-09 season, they simply could not hang on to an early lead.

youssouf mulumbu, once again, gave away a free-kick in a dangerous area at the top of the box and the latics took full advantage as charles n'zogbia equalized in the 20th minute. both the momentum of the game and the atmosphere of the hawthorns changed drastically, as wigan went on to claim a huge majority of the possession as well as a second goal before half-time.

in almost a mirror image of the first latics' goal, gonzalo jara gave away a free-kick on the edge of the box just minutes before half-time, and ben watson stepped up to take. the wigan midfielder, who was at the hawthorns on loan towards the end of last season, put the ball right through the box past everyone, including a static west brom defence, four on-rushing wigan attackers and a largely unsighted and highly distracted boaz myhill in the albion goal.

this was a real let-down and it was visible throughout the albion team that confidence is rather fragile at the moment. there was also some tension amongst the albion fans themselves, as one baggies supporter was spotted arguing and throwing punches with another in the birmingham road end. it all cooled down pretty quickly and served as some small diversion and temporary amusement for the stewards, as well as being clear evidence of the frustration that is setting in at the hawthorns these days. supporting the baggies is strictly for adults and an experience that should be reserved only for those who can handle it.

while a lack of defensive quality on TV very often makes for entertaining football, on radio or as audio commentary it is tragic and dull. i believe that this is due to the intrinsic critical nature of audio commentary which tends to be pretty unforgiving on the mistakes and negatives, as well as creating an intense involvement on the part of the listener. after all, radio always was the "hot" medium as far as marshall mcluhan was concerned. whereas television offers us a more generous version of the action through its impartial, neutral, cool and detached point of view.

with time slipping away in the second half, the baggies again showed their character and sense of purpose as they battled on and came back into the match following marc-antoine fortune's inclusion. the french striker was called into action when simon cox was forced off with a minor injury.

both fortune and chris brunt hit the post within a space of two minutes as the albion built the momentum to find the equalizer. this finally came in the last 15 minutes as the baggies relentless pressure on the wigan goal finally paid off and fortune sneaked in a header from a ball dinked in across the face of goal by jerome thomas. the baggies were level in a match that neither side could afford to lose.

the baggies kept pressing for the winner and only a top-class save from ali al-habsi in the wigan goal preserved the draw for the latics. a screaming header from paul scharner off an albion corner-kick looked every inch a goal until the latics' keeper stunning reflex save pushed the ball over the bar. in the end - and despite a some good aggressive attacking play by charles n'zogbia - the baggies could and and should have won this one.

these two teams are very similar in that they are dedicated to the principals of playing football in the right way. they want to entertain their supporters and maintain a competitive place amongst the top 25 teams in the country. while simple enough in its conception, it's not half as easy as it sounds.

wigan have managed to make a go of it, although every year since their inaugural seasonin the top-flight - where an early run of form carried them through to a 10th place finish - the PREMIER LEAGUE has been a struggle and fighting off relegation is now a yearly ritual. i don't know much about the structure of the club, but from seeing the way they play football i imagine they are pretty well run organization who have their supporters' best interest at heart. especially as wigan has never been noted for its football and is still widely percieved as a rugby league stronghold.

while the baggies have yet to compete in the top-flight for more than two years consecutively, they are superbly run organization that has developed a management formula - and appropriate to a club of its size - that will continue to secure the baggies a place in the country's top 25 teams; thus, always - and likewise - able to compete for a place in the PREMIER LEAGUE.

the significance of this, is that it is careful not to follow the trend we've seen develop over the last 10 years, where clubs will qualify for the PREMIER LEAGUE and overspend in a desperate attempt to retain their top-flight status, only to fall into financial problems and drop two divisions within a couple of years. the list of clubs who've suffered this fate grows annually. five or six years ago, charlton athletic were touted as the model of how a community based club might achieve consolidation in the top-flight... just check out where they are now! this will never happen to the baggies.

they'll always be an albion!!! at least as long as jeremy peace is the chairman.

however, the sad truth is that there is no reward for being a well run club with a mandate to play football in the "right way". manchester united can afford to play a style of football - and presented in such a way that people would want to watch - that is not a viable way for the bigger community based teams to play. if wigan, west ham, wolves or west brom go 2-0 down in the first-half of a match with any other team in the PREMIER LEAGUE, it is very unlikely they will able to come back sufficiently to get a result. the best they could expect is perhaps a draw, and that would require a rare and exceptional performance. on the other hand, manchester united would routinely go on to win 3-2 as many as four times out of five.

apparently, you have to have a more or less unlimited budget to play good, attractive and exciting football in the context of the top-flight. any attempt to do so without this type of financial resource is suicidal in respect to the PREMIER LEAGUE. survival is achieved either through gambling with the very existance of your club, or playing completely negative football. this is why the top-flight is populated by mid-table perennials like blackburn, bolton, stoke and fulham, who are always happy enough to get away with a draw or nicking a late winner in a 1-0.

wigan have to be happier about this point than the baggies as the two look to be amongst the six or seven teams that threaten to get sucked into a relegation battle as the season enters its final phase.

Blackburn Rovers F. C. 2-0 WBA

2011-01-23T12:14:00.001-08:00

live text replay

after last week's heroic and highly entertaining match with blackpool, the baggies returned to their poor away form as rovers became the first team of the season to do the double over the albion. blackburn beat the baggies 3-1 in the reverse fixture at the hawthorns back in the dying days of december.

while making a good start and pressing rovers early on, the baggies best chances came much too early in the game to take full advantage, and in the end they were once again thwarted in their more enterprising moments of attack by the brilliant goalkeeping of paul robinson. the baggies showed the trouble they have with big physical teams who defend well, and for the first time this year, suffered for the absence of central midfielder, graham dorrans, following his return to form over the last month.

unlike their last away match at fulham, the albion started out the more aggressive and enterprising of the two teams. peter odemwingie found himself in a one-on-one with rover's keeper, robinson, within the first couple of minutes. the ex-england international came out well and aggresively cut down the angle to make the save.

the baggies' defensive mistakes aside, the real difference in the match (as it had been in december for the reverse fixture) was paul robinson, who continued his good form against the baggies with goal-saving stops from odemwingie, james morrison, chris brunt and jerome thomas. with 20 shots on target to the baggies' credit, robinson would seem a critical component in the success that rovers have enjoyed this year.

the importance of jonas olsson's return to the team was immeasurable as the baggies looked better at the back than they have for some time. for the first 40 minutes of the match they were very good defensively. especially after the first 20 minutes and blackburn began to really control things with a massive 70% possession for about 15 minutes in the middle of the first-half. after 40 minutes the two teams were on pretty equal footing and both looked to get into the dressing room on a 0-0 scoreline, which was probably to the baggies' tactical advantage.

however, a huge mistake by gabriel tamas created an own goal and - much as it had been against fulham - the baggies went in at the half 1-0 down. the goal came on 41 minutes with blackburn finding space down the albion left flank and the baggies' defenders out of position. the romanian centre-half was caught between tracking his man and defending the cross, and in meaning to give up the corner-kick, had lost where he was positioned and sent an unfortunate, powerful header past his own goalkeeper, boaz myhill.

as has been the case on more than several occassions this year, west brom were down by a goal that was the result of a momentary lapse in judgement on the part of a defensive player.

however, and citing their good record at coming from behind, one doesn't ever lose faith as an albion supporter as long as the scoreline is 1-0. however, a second goal without having first equalized and the baggies are in trouble, and that's just what happened less than a minute-and-a-half into the second period. it was another mistake by the baggies defenders, not closing down and giving the ball away in a dangerous position with the opposition capitalizing on the error.

rovers' canadian forward, david hoilett, took full advantage as the ball fell for him at the top of the box and blasted past boaz myhill from the edge of the penalty area to give the home-side a 2-0 advantage.

this was the kind of game that frustrates the albion in the most profound way. against other teams that play a more open style of football, the baggies seem to rise to the occasion and are a much more dangerous side - as they have consistantly shown this year - when playing the likes of arsenal, liverpool or manchester united than they are against bolton, blackburn or fulham. for all their good passing and possession, the baggies have resorted to playing a lot of long ball this year and actually rank amongst the top 3 premier league teams in terms of long balls attempted.

the real problem is that the team - after a good start to the season - has probably become a bit too predictable. ever since the end of first half of their home match with local rivals, birmingham city, where the baggies found themselves being badly outplayed in midfield, they have employed an ever more predictable 4-5-1 formation with peter odemwingie as the preferred lone striker. at this point in the year, all the top managers will have seen the baggies and know what they do.

keep west bromwich albion from pressing the ball high up the pitch and you will isolate odemwingie, effectively taking him out of the game. the formula is simple, if you can manage to make it work; and the good defensive teams are doing just that. this is the primary reason that the albion have resorted to using the long ball as a major tactic in their attacking game.

there was one real moment of contention in this match when a clear foul was committed against odemwingie on the edge of the blackburn penalty area. while the TV replay indicated that the ball was outside the area, both the defender and the albion striker were in the box when the infraction occurred, and to anyone watching it was a stonewall penalty. the referee, however, awarded a free-kick just outside the blackburn penalty area and the baggies were unable to capitalize and score the goal which would have seen them back in the match and chasing a draw for the last five minutes or so.

with all the genuine suprises in terms of results at the beginning of the season, the pundits were predicting that 40 points might be needed this year to avoid relegaton. but with wolves, west ham, wigan, birmingham city , west brom and fulham all hovering at the bottom of the table and not getting consistant results, this is looking less likely now than it was then; and, as per usual, 35-38 points will probably be enough to keep a team up this year.

as was the case last week against blackpool - and despite any managerial rhetoric - there are definitely games that the baggies will have to target, and results needed which will be a real test of character. with the next three home matches being wigan, west ham and wolves there's no getting away from the fact that the albion are facing an immediate series of challenges that will be characterized as "must win" situations with a mounting intensity from week to week. we can only hope that they've done the business and will be well past this when they face newcastle united at st. james park on the last day of the season.

WBA 3-2 Blackpool F.C.

2011-01-16T19:46:00.000-08:00

live text replay

this was truly a heroic victory for the baggies. while almost always able to keep pace with whoever their competition on the day, 'wins' - and more importantly 'points' - have been hard to come by since the beginning of november and the side have looked like the struggle of the PREMIER LEAGUE might be beginning to take its toll on team confidence.

in truth, after west brom's exit from the FA CUP to CHAMPIONSHIP side reading, i rather thought that they might not be able to bounce back from what was then 6 straight losses. club captain and goalie, scott carson, looks like he's completely lost it, and the lack of spirit exhibited in the cup fixture indicated that the club might be in real trouble.

the baggies, however, proved themselves a team of exceptional character and heroic determination in what was - to date - their most important match of the season. with scott carson on the bench following a poor run of form, and jonas olsson serving a single match-ban incurred in the cup game with reading, the albion had their work cut out for them.

it's almost a joke at this point, but the baggies went behind to a david vaughn goal in the 10th minute. the albion must surely be on for setting some kind of PREMIER LEAGUE record for most points taken from games in which they have had to come back from a losing position. with rare exception, the baggies are almost always required to come from behind in order to get points from a game. i can only think of three matches which produced points where the baggies haven't had to come back from a 1 (or 2) goal deficit.

considering the two teams involved in this match it was never in danger of being a 0-0. in fact, with a 5 goal total, this match could easily have produced 8 or 9. an early miss by striker dj campbell was followed by vaughn's unstoppable long range strike in the 10th minute. the baggies were then lucky not to be 2 down when gabriel tamas, returning froma three game match-ban, badly misjudged a ball running down the line and in attempting to shepherd it into touch, allowed luke varney a clear run and free shot on goal. luckily the blackpool striker put the ball over boaz myhill's crossbar and, after a hectic opening 15 minutes, the baggies were afforded a chance to settle.

chris brunt almost put the baggies level when taking a perfect cross from jerome thomas, but was thwarted by some brilliant point-blank defending at the far post on the part of blackpool defender, stephen crainey.

the tangerines will have rued their early misses when the albion finally equalized on a peter odemwingie goal in the 36th minute. the nigerian striker, who has struggled to score while playing through a series of niggling injuries, returned to form in fine style. timing his run perfectly, odemwingie took a ball over the top from graham dorrans, beating the off-side trap and calmly slotting home past the stranded ghanaian international, richard kingson.

james morrison seems to have hit a rich vein of form as he continued to score with a goal just 6 minutes after the restart. richard kingson weakly palmed away a jerome thomas cross and the baggies' scottish international tapped the ball into an open goal to give the baggies a 2-1 lead.

the albion dominated the next 20 minutes, and in one of the most open games you'll ever see in the PREMIER LEAGUE, both odemwingie and james morrison had chances that should have seen the home side up 3 or 4-1.

gary fletcher-taylor equalized through the ever increasing pressure of the blackpool attack as the match entered its final phase. with 15 minutes to go , the blackpool striker might have thought he had produced the draw. an incisive cross from david vaughn found fletcher-taylor free at the back post and boaz myhill with no chance whatsoever.

but the baggies needed this win badly and odemwingie again scored in the 86th minute on a long-ball from gonzalo jara. the nigerian got the bounce as the right-back's long pass went into the blackpool penalty area, and wrestling free from his marker put the ball low and into the net at kingson's left-hand corner.

some desperate defending was required to preserve the win, but it was the baggies day and was only justice that the albion should take all 3 points from this one after the travesty at bloomfield road back in november which set the baggies onto a poor run of form after a good start to the season.

with this important win, the baggies are now about 15 points short of what they'll need to assure survival in the PREMIER LEAGUE. with important matches coming up against blackburn (away) and wigan (home), and the imminent return of jonas olsson, the baggies came through what was their biggest challenge of the season so far wih maximum points. this team certainly has the character to make out alright this year and 4 points from the next couple of matches will see the baggies well back on course. i only hope they can meet the challenges ahead with similar success.

Reading F.C. 1-0 WBA

2011-01-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

live text replay

although i noticed it a while back, i have yet to write about roberto di matteo's team selections - and especially his seeming reluctance to play certain members of the 2008-09 squad which was relegated from the PREMIER LEAGUE under tony mowbray.

the gaffer was happy enough with the midfield that he inherited from mowbray's time at the hawthorns, but it seems that there is a real reticence to play certain long-time players (particularly defenders and strikers) in the medium of top-flight football.

i'm not sure that he's got it quite right. ishmael miller, roman bednar, abdoulaye meite and gianni zuiverloon remained with the club, making the final 25-man squad for the 2010-2011 season. gonzalo jara, gabriel tamas, pablo ibanez, peter odemwingie and marc-antoine fortune have all been brought in since mowbray's departure for celtic (and now middlesbrough) and are all preferred starters for the positions where miller, bednar, meite and zuiverloon had previously been first-team selections.

the general rationale is that none of these are PREMIER LEAGUE quality players, where their replacements are decidedly - and in di matteo's mind, anyway - more fit for the job.

at the same time, more than a few of mowbray's defenders and strikers have gone to other clubs. west brom have now sold both luke moore and craig beattie to swansea city; as well as shelton martis, who went to doncaster rovers, while leon barnett and reuben reid have gone out on season long loans to norwich city and walsall respectively.

i'm not outrightly critisizing any or all of these moves, but i've never been sure that the gaffer has got it right with miller, bednar, meite and zuiverloon.

miller has taken a long time to come back from a cruciate ligament injury that was incurred about two years ago. it's easy to forget that he scored on his debut with the club, going on to score 7 goals in the league that season as well as a hat-trick in the FA CUP quarter-final. in 2008-09, and after a slow start in the PREMIER LEAGUE, he scored 3 goals in the 4 matches leading up to his injury. last season, he scored on his first start in 14 months against blackpool, as well as the decisive goal coming on as a substitute 3 days later at the liberty stadium to give the baggies a 2-0 away win that just about clinched automatic promotion for them. if he can get back the form (and provided he gets the opportunity) he was starting to show in the baggies' last top-flight campaign, then i believe he is, in fact, a capable first choice striker in the PREMIER LEAGUE.

i think pretty much the same about roman bednar. he has surprisingly returned to the club after a brief loan spell at leicester city and it had looked like we weren't going to see him back at the hawthorns again. obviously the club's need for strikers was greater than whatever regard (or dis-regard) that RDM currently holds for roman bednar. the supporters love bednar no matter what division we're in and, at his best, he brings a top class spirit to the attack, you never know what might happen when he's on the field and he is technically good at the hold-up play needed for a 4-5-1 playing formation.

gianni zuiverloon fell out of favour after his two mistakes against reading in the FA CUP last year. as we all remember well, it was zuiverloon's careless control which saw 2 goals given up to jimmy kebe that helped put the baggies out of the cup. the young dutch defender had lost both his confidence and a place as a starter in any subsequent matches for the rest of the year. this was a bit of a rough break, as zuiverloon is an above average player in terms of pace and ball skills, and is a rarity in that he is probably more suited to PREMIER LEAGUE football than he is to the more physical grind of playing in the FOOTBALL LEAGUE.

abdoulaye meite was a different story. his downfall came after coming to the club, making a good start, but being part of what was ultimately a poor defensive team. eventually , he too completely lost his confidence and fell out of favour as a first choice centre-half. meite's loss of confidence during the 2008-09 top-flight campaign was painful to see in regards to how plain, obvious and evident it was to anyone watching. the arrival of gabriel tamas - and then pablo ibanez went a long way towards exiling meite to the reserves and subs' bench.

it gets overlooked, however, that he put in a good series of performances following the baggies' loss to barnsley last year, and was instrumental in the recovery of the club's defensive form after a particularly poor showing and a calamitous own goal by shelton martis, who was soon on his way to doncaster rovers. whatever problems he encountered two years ago, meite was still a veteran of top-flight football. however, he is certainly a flawed and uneven talent whose career has been hindered by injury and marred by controversy. i can understand why he would not be rated a "premier-league player". whatever his deficiencies, though, he's still a trained professional and you'd think he might just be useful in a situation where injuries and/or suspensions had limited team selection as far as centre-halfs go.

with this in mind, i was surprised that miller was given a start, even in an FA CUP game. the albion striker has been out of regular football so long that it is hard for anyone not actually going to the baggies' training sessions to know what kind of fitness a player like miller is in.

while he almost certinaly doesn't have a full 90 minutes in him, and he predictably pulled a hamstring just past the hour mark, for the first 20 minutes miller was getting into some good positions and causing problems for the royals at the back. his finishing was beyond rusty, though, as he probably should have had a goal and almost certainly had a legitimate shout for a penalty which was ignored by the referee.

besides james morrison's chip which clipped off the royals cross-bar, there was very little else to recommend this performance by the baggies. in fact, it bordered on disastrous and only the result of saturday's upcoming league fixture with blackpool will tell the tale.

jonas olsson came on after half-time in an effort to give the swedish defender 45 minutes worth of football before league play resumes and he makes his full return to the first-team. the albion centre-half has been out injured since the baggies loss to blackpool at bloomfield road in the beginning of november. however, the strategy badly backfired when olsson's aggressive streak - which we all know well - got him into trouble all too quickly. an over zealous tackle saw him booked within a minute of taking the field and in less than 15 minutes he had picked up a second yellow and was dismissed. the enusing automatic red-card will keep him out of the side when blackpool visit the hawthorns on saturday - a match the baggies desperately need to win.

boaz myhill did well enough in the albion goal that he'll almost certainly start in the next league match, and help take the pressure off squad captain, scott carson, whose recent run of poor form has seen him being blasted by the local press and supporters alike. after last week's loss to fulham, the england international looked to have completely lost his confidence and in dire need of some time out of the side - if only to get him out of the public line of fire and see that he gets a chance to put his head straight.

in fact, the whole team needs to get its head straight. you have to admire the baggies for not letting their heads drop during this last 5 (now 6) straight defeats. they have continued to show character and play some good football with a positive attitude throughout.

it's hard to judge from a cup game - which is why the upcoming home match with blackpool looms so large for the baggies. aside from miller's early efforts, the albion never looked in this one and team confidence looks like it might be finally ebbing away. the loss to fulham was devastating and this cup fixture was pedestrian and spiritless at best.

this coming saturday at the hawthorns is the biggest test of character the baggies will have had to face all season. let's hope they're up to it.

Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

2011-01-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

live text replay

the baggies came into this match on a run of four straight defeats, the teams' best defenders all out on injury or suspension and only the consolation of some really good performances but with no points to show for all their endeavour.

the impressive thing is that these losses haven't seemed to affect confidence amongst the starting line-up and i thought perhaps fulham might find the albion a bit of a bogey team this year, having previously lost to the baggies in the reverse fixture back at the hawthorns in october. fulham are now struggling to find last year's form which saw the cottagers finish a creditable 12th and make it to the EUROPA LEAGUE final with big wins over juventas and wolfsburg.

roberto di matteo implemented a tactically sound and intelligent game-plan for this away match to the cottagers. knowing that the baggies would almost certainly be out-muscled in crucial areas of the pitch by a bigger fulham side, the gaffer's intention was to hold a good defensive shape, don't give anything up and maintain a clean-sheet for the first half. presumably, if he could get the team in at the break at 0-0, he would have looked for a way to neutralize dickson etuhu - who won absolutely everything in the central midfield - and look to pinch a point away from home or nick a 1-0 win.

the plan appeared to be working as the baggies were within whatever injury there was to played from achieving the first aim: to keep a clean-sheet! with only about 30 second of added time gone, however, youssouf mulumbu lost the ball to etuhu in a dangerous area. the pass fell for simon davies to get in a solid, long-range strike, producing the first goal of the match.

while it was a pretty good effort from the welsh midfielder, it was clear that scott carson should have had this one. he was only about a foot or two too high off his line for optimum positioning, and would have saved easily had he been standing on the goal-line. but the baggies' captain misjudged the effort, and while he got two hands solidly behind the ball, he mishandled the shot, bundled it into the net and the cottagers found themselves with a 1-0 lead going into the break. di matteo's game-plan, which had heretofore looked to be working, was suddenly out the window, and as the second-half would show, so was their confidence.

things went from bad to worse as fulham went on to thoroughly dominate the game on all counts and twice more took advantage of the unfortunate, makeshift baggies' back-four and out-of-form goalie. dickson etuhu continued to boss the central midfield and the baggies never really looked like they were in this one.

the baggies' proclivity for giving up goals on poorly defended crosses and set-pieces continued as they went on to concede two more in this one - both headed goals by clint dempsey and brede hangeland respectively - and were 3-0 down with almost half-an-hour left to play. this was a truly dismal performance.

the exception to this being young james hurst having stepped into the squad at right-back, and gianni zuiverloon in the side at the unlikely position of centre-half. i can only hope that these two players in particular aren't affected by this otherwise miserable performance. the teenage hurst was easily the best baggies' player on the day, and zuiverloon - who has not seen much match-time this year - was more than creditable in, what for him, is an unusual position.

this has been a season of extremes for west brom. their last game against the cottagers produced a 2-1 home win and propelled the baggies into 4th place in the table. they were the undisputed form team of the league over the months of september and october. this visit to craven cottage, however, was as poor a performance as they have produced this season and drops the baggies into a four-way relegation battle with the three other birmingham/black country teams. even the 6-0 opening day thrashing at the hands of chelsea, just down the road from here, produced much better football than this.

following some good performances in a losing cause, this has to be counted as the low-point of the season and we can only pray that it doesn't get worse.

scott carson is a man who needs a rest. he has started to come under some deep criticism from the local press and has completely lost the faith of the supporters. the situation has gotten so bad, that i expect that nothing short of absolute disaster in the upcoming FA CUP fixture against reading, will keep boaz myhill from getting his first league start for the baggies when league play resumes at home to blackpool on january 15th.

WBA 1-2 Manchester United F.C.

2011-01-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

live text replay

of all the fixtures in all the world... one of the most presitigous clubs in all of football comes to visit on new year's day reminding us of a time when the albion were one of the best clubs in england. it was a time when it was all still possible and the large community-based football clubs could still win major trophies.

the baggies have always done pretty well against manchester united over the years. there is an early broadcast of MOTD from back in the mid 60s where the red devils visited the hawthorns. jeff astle scored a brace, with john kaye adding a third goal which are recognized by almost all baggies' supporters as iconic moments in west bromwich albion folklore. there were seven goals in that match and was won 4-3 by manchester united.

even better known still is the 5-3 match played at old trafford on boxing day 1978. it is debatably one of the best games of football ever played in england and certainly one of the best known and well regarded broadcasts of MOTD ever. it is some of the most extensive footage of how good the 1978-79 side really was.

earlier this year - and after having beaten arsenal at the emirates, the baggies went to old trafford and came back from being 2 goals down to snatch a point with a 2-2 draw. the albion historically find more success against manchester united than they do against stoke city (a well known and long standing bogey fixture to baggies supporters). so in fact - and with three straight defeats threatening to send the baggies into a relegation battle as well as erode the confidence that the team has played with all season, manchester united at home isn't too bad a fixture to have to deal with at the minute.

the baggies haven't played too many games better than this one, and after what seems to be the almost mandatory early capitulation and going behind 1-0 to a wayne rooney goal in the 2nd minute of the game, they regrouped immediately and thoroughly dominated the match. the statistics - including possession and attempts on goal - were more heavily in the favour of the baggies than they had been against blackburn, and was a better performance than the bolton game. but unlike at bolton and against blackburn, where the baggies would have done well to come away with a point, this is a game that they should have won but let get away in desperately unlucky fashion.

graham dorrans announced his return to form and was cruelly denied a penalty when he was brought down in the box by united defender, gary neville. even manchester united manager, alex ferguson, admitted that the baggies were unlucky and they should have been awarded a penalty in that situation, also noting that his own player was lucky not to have been sent off.

in fact, i believe that the issue of the card is the reason that the penalty was never going to be given. dorrans had taken a pass from chris brunt, gotten in behind the red devils' defender and had only the goalie left to beat. to foul a man with the ball in this position is an automatic red card. it was fairly clear to anybody on the park, as dorrans was bundled to the ground, that neville never got anywhere near the ball and it was a stonewall penalty. however, referee, chris foy, was not about to put himself in the position of having to send someone off in a big game with live, international TV coverage in a match featuring manchester united. if there was a shadow a doubt, he just wasn't going to do it.

i know from having watched the albion play in the CHAMPIONSHIP, that when you are a distinguished favourite at any particular level of football, you tend to get those little breaks and 50-50 decisions from the referees in order that the balance of the universe maintain its equilibrium.

towards the end of last season, just as albion were ready to clinch the second automatic promotion spot (and set a club record points total), they were awarded two critical and questionable penalties against blackpool and swansea respectively. these were 50-50 decisions that could have gone either way or had different outcome. the baggies were expected to succeed and the decisions were always going to go their way.

this is always going to happen in football. referees too understand that this is an entertainment-based business.

the baggies equalized early and quite deservedly through a tremendous individual effort by james morrison. like his fellow scottish international, graham dorrans, morrison has returned to his top playing form as evidenced by his contribution in the last two albion goals.

from a long and precisely delivered ball by chris brunt which nemanja vidic was unable to clear, morrison blasted the shot on the half volley past tomasz kuszczak for a goal of world-class quality. with not even 15 minutes gone, the baggies looked every bit the equal of their adversary and the equalizer was more than deserved.

with the game poised at 1-1 and the baggies looking the better of the two sides, there was every reason to be optimistic at the half, in spite of the blatant injustice of gary neville's challenge on graham dorrans going unpunished. the baggies certainly didn't look like a team who had just lost three matches in a row. they were playing with a confidence and bearing that completely belied any slip in form in regards to recent results in the league.

in the second half, albion came out with more of the same and continued to control the tempo and set the pace of the match. the baggies were so dominant that they carried a 62% of the possession, and outshot the red devils by a margin of 17 attempts (8 on target) to 5 (2 on target), and were only just edged on the number of corner-kicks by a margin of 1 (5 to 4).

but the baggies pressed and kept the play high, constantly looking for opportunity to attack the united goal. jerome thomas looked that he might have given west brom the full three-points when he was brought down in the box by veteran england international, rio ferdinand. this time there was no dispute or question.

while i was screaming for graham dorrans to take it, peter odemwingie continued as penalty taker. never looking quite confident enough, the nigerian international did well enough to send united keeper, kuszak, the wrong way for an easy sroke-in at the far post, but pushed the ball hopelessly wide. i have come to believe that only under special circumstance (i.e. wayne rooney, carlos tevez) should a striker also be a penalty taker. the psychology of a striker is just too fragile and taking penalties is a job best performed by a strong foot rather than a clever one.

this was a massive miss and might prove a real psychological set-back in the end.

of course, and this is manchester united and the baggies then went behind in the 75th minute. once again, the poor defending on corner-kicks was their undoing as united striker, javier hernandez, was allowed a free header from point-blank range leaving scott carson with no chance whatever.

there are, of course, several contributing factors - not the least of which is injured and suspended centre-halfs - to the baggies current problem in regards to defending set-pieces and especially corner-kicks, but i am starting to lose patience with scott carson. if what is quickly becoming a make-shift back-four for the baggies are lost on set-pieces, then carson is simply going to have to come for the ball and challenge to make the clearances or take the ball himself. it's as simple as that. this goal came through a ball that the keeper definitely could have come for and won easily. seeing a man unmarked and directly in front of you, you should playing to take that ball instead of waiting to make the save. period.

carson is good at what he does. he is a goalie who guards the line and specializes in making athletic saves with a lightning quick reaction time as a shot-stopper. he doesn't come off his line and his positional game is non-existent. he is very much in the mould of another albion goalie, tony godden. but godden had ally robertson and john wile covering the penalty area for him, and the style of goalie and centre-halfs complemented each other to produce a successful method of defending.

without olsson and tamas in the team, carson is all the more inappropriate a choice and his confidence is going to be shot soon, so perhaps it's time that di matteo gave boaz myhill a run in the first team.

it was an otherwise brilliant performance, however, and the albion are to be admired as a side who have continued to play enterprising and confident football despite a string of what is now four straight defeats. this now leaves the baggies needing an away win at fulham to stop the rot of what has been a shockingly dissapointing run without a lucky break in sight.

Ghosts of Premier Leagues Past

2011-01-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

i have tried to be positive. i have attempted to be patient. my team is playing in the PREMIER LEAGUE this year and i have tried not to be cynical. but after this loss to bolton, i'm beginning to lose my grip on the situation.

i won't get into some hoary old attitude about how great life was before the advent of the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE. the ugly trade-off for the achievment of having given english football to the world has seen unbelievable financial gaps develop between the PREMIER and FOOTBALL leagues which have weakened the integrity of the domestic league structure and destroyed the ability of the large community-based clubs (once the bedrock of the english game) to compete at the highest level .

Bolton Wanderers F.C. 2-0 WBA

live text replay

in the 2010-2011 season we have seen some good competitive football, the surprisingly good performances of all three promoted teams, and a shift from the guaranteed model of the "big-four" with a second-grade consisting of 3 or 4 clubs feeding on their scraps with the rest of the division never more than a few bad results from being relegation fodder.

this year, the division has organized itself into a top half of the table where everyone is a serious contender in playing for a european spot, and bottom half where everyone is either fighting a relegation battle or looking to keep clear by a vital few points and never more than a couple of poor results away from trouble. since jonas olsson's injury, the baggies have gone from being a european contender to a team who needs to avoid slipping into the bottom 4 or 5.

whatever skill we've seen in the work of kevin davies and johan elmander in leading a very successful bolton attack, the trotters are still essentially proponents of the long ball and purveyors of tough, ugly football. however, they have managed to raise the art of PREMIER LEAGUE survival to a level where they can now compete and see some success at the higher end of the table and the trotters are definitely in with a shout for a spot in europe next year. owen coyle deserves real credit for having brought something special to the reebok stadium.

while the baggies had the higher percentage of possession, interestingly enough, the wanderers dominated - albeit only very slightly - in all other categories. this surprised me, but was testament to the quality not only of bolton's defensive play (they simply don't give you many opportunities to get a look at goal) but that there is now a spark of creativity in their attack. the injection of some skill and subtlety in going forward has proved a successful addition to their footballing repertoire.

i had gone to england for the west brom v wolves fixture which ended up being postponed. so i was already suffering the effects of massive disappointment. there are no trains anywhere in england on boxing day, so it is impossible to go anywhere unless you have a car. i had no way of getting to bolton, and although i had not originally planned it, i would have probably made a desperate attempt to get there at this point.

originally, my mother was going to drive me down to huish park (not too far from where she lives) where i was going to watch yeovil town play brentford in their boxing day game. that match too was postponed, making it 3 out of 4 matches for which i had tickets now irretrievably gone, and my "football holiday" effectively ruined.

all i could do was sit at my mum's place in chilcompton, radstock listening to ALBION RADIO and yet another disappointing result from what sounded to be a terrific match. the MATCH OF THE DAY HIGHLIGHTS confirmed that it was indeed a very evenly contested, skilled and exciting game.

there was every reason to take heart at the baggies' performance in this match... just no points to celebrate. the albion will almost certainly win one or two more matches this year where they will not have played anywhere near as well as this.

WBA 1-3 Blackburn Rovers F.C.

live text replay

this was the only match for which i had tickets that i was actually able to get to. in the end, it was just another disappointment.

while the baggies performed admirably with chris brunt out on a single-match suspension for incurring a 5th yellow card, they missed his leadership in pushing the team forward and looked just slightly disjointed for his absence.

it was good, however, to see graham dorrans starting to come into some much improved form after a slow start to the season and being unable to get a place in the first team. while still not as spectacular as he was last year, he was looking more the part of the little general than he really has all season. likewise, dorrans' midfield partner, james morrison, has been improving with each match and looks to have returned to top-form following a long injury that had kept him out of the side for the better part of a year, followed by a lengthy rehabilitation towards regaining full match fitness.

the scottish international created one of the best early chances of the game with a tremendous individual effort which saw a scorching shot from 25 yards out beat the rovers' goalie, paul robinson, only to see the shot curl millimeteres wide of the far post.

however, the match itself was absolutely ridculous. the baggies have now fallen into the trap of delivering solid possession and attacking performances, but are conceding too easily - especially on corner-kicks. i think the problem probably stems from the fact that there are too many defenders - starting with jonas olsson - who are now out injured and while paul scharner has been a sterling stand-in at centre-half, the baggies are conceding soft goals through lapses in defending - and on set-pieces especially.

to compound they problem, they are not taking enough of their chances at the other end, and - like the 2008-09 team - they are becoming tentative in attack, looking for the elusive "perfect" goal. in other words: they have become desperate and having to think too hard about the final ball that the instinctive play we saw against arsenal, manchester united and everton has dried up and the baggies are now spurning chances that might produce an own goal, a dangerous deflection or an opportunity from a scuffed shot or mishandled ball in a dangerous area.

if you look at the statistics from this game it's clearly evident as to who played the more enterprising football:

POSSESSION:
west brom 55% - blackburn 45%
SHOTS:
on target
west brom 11 - blackburn 4
off target
west brom 10 - blackburn 2
CORNERS:
west brom 8 - blackburn 5
FOULS:
west brom 9 - blackburn 13

i guess it was the in the psychological intangibles that this game was both won and lost. there was also some moments of excellent goal-keeping from veteran england interantional, paul robinson, and for all their good possession football and attacking build-up the baggies were going to have a hard time getting a clear chance on goal.

after going behind 1-0 early on in the match, this looked another carbon copy of my first three or four visits to the hawthorns. in matches i had seen against plymouth argyle, doncaster rovers, blackpool and preston north end, the baggies had conceded both first and early before then turning the games around and winning all four matches by scores of 3-1 (plymouth, doncaster) and 3-2 (blackpool and preston). so the sight of nikola kalinic scoring on the break with just 3 minutes gone didn't phase me in the least.

the albion were caught in a good move out of the back by rovers for the first goal. with the wingers and full-backs caught playing in a high position, kalinic took a good long-ball hit into space down the albion left flank and having gotten in behind the albion back-four buried a low, hard shot just inside scott carson's far post.

welcome to the hawthorns, i thought sarcastically, recalling the first time i had seen the albion concede a goal at home.

in keeping with the script, the baggies then began to assert their possession football and created the better chances with a concerted effort and dominance in attack. as i have come to expect from my visits to the hawthorns, the baggies equalized on 17 minutes through a jerome thomas goal.

it was a good run from morrison, in fact, that made the equalizer for the albion just on 17 minutes. the baggies' midfielder went on a scintillating run, taking the ball from his own half and well into blackburn territory, finding somen tchoyi on the right wing, before the cameroon international delivered a perfect ball across the face of goal for jerome thomas to bundle it in at the far post.

the baggies went on to dominate the rest of the half, and would have had the lead were it not for the goal-keeping of paul robinson. ironically, robinson was substituted at the half for a strained calf-muscle. this gave opportunity to PREMIER LEAGUE debutant, marc bunn, to prove himself in the blackburn goal. he was given the chance to show his worth early on after the restart with having to turn a stinging effort by peter odemwingie around the post.

the baggies ultimately lost this match by two goals that resulted directly from blackburn corner-kicks. with jonas olsson out with injury, and now tamas on a three-match suspension, the albion marking on set-pieces - and especially corner-kicks - has fallen apart. no one seems to know his job and the situation need some real sorting. the other big problem - and in lightof this particular defensive frailty - is that scott carson is a keeper who just doesn't come off his line, so depends heavily on good marking from his central defenders on set-pieces. without olsson to marshall the back-line, carson is going to have to come for the ball a lot more than he is naturally inclined to.

in fact, if this situation persists and the albion start to give away too many more soft goals from set-pieces, then it might be worth giving boaz myhill a run in the first team and see if he does any better. above all, someone has to organize the marking better and carson doesn't seem to be doing that either.

oh well, onwards and upwards...

Aston Villa F.C. 2-1 WBA

2010-12-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

live text replay

when all is said and done, after a week of intense pressure from a critical local news media over gerard houllier and aston villa's recent mediocre form - and coupled with the hype of the buildup to this match - i don't think that anyone in birmingham or the black country would have realistically expected the albion to go to villa park and come away with 3-points.

the villa are by far and away the biggest club of the four west midlands sides playing in this year's PREMIER LEAGUE and they would go into this match as decided favourites. not because this a particularly good villa side - and this certainly isn't a poor west brom team - but because necessity and playing at home can win local derbies and aston villa needed this one more than can be imagined. in short, they were left with no choice but a win!

following a truly poor performance in their 3-0 monday night loss away to a struggling liverpool side, this was more a match that the villa couldn't afford to lose and absolutely needed to win or face managing a possible crisis and dropping into the relegatoin fight. also gaffer, gerard houllier, had a whack of back-peddling, patch-work public relations to do following some poorly chosen words in regards to his old team, liverpool, and the villa's recent defeat at anfield.

truth to tell, i haven't watched the villa much this year, but from what i have seen they are not a particularly exciting team. whenever i have watched them over the last few years, one thing has been consistent: they are a counter-attacking team who play the long ball. from listening to the post match reactions from the villa supporters on BBC WM, i get the idea that the club has been in a bit of turmoil defensively of late.

most of the supporters' praise was for the full-backs and centre-halfs, especially the inclusion of carlos cuellar - who seemed like he might be a popular choice among supporters for villa's man of the match - and the effective manner in which they dealt with the baggies wingers, jerome thomas and somen tchoyi. it's fair to say that "relief" was the dominant emotion expressed by the phone-in villa supporters.

the baggies support on the other hand was, in general, mildly disappointed but not surprised. when asked by the BBC if they had felt confident of victory prior to the match, a group of albion fans leaving villa park laughed at the question.

"you never feel like that being an albion supporter," one of them answered.

roberto di matteo stuck pretty much with the team that had beaten newcastle the week before. the only conscpicuous absence was that of peter odemwingie, who was replaced in the starting line-up by marc-antoine fortune, due to a reccurring problem with his knee. graham dorrans retained his starter's position in midfield with youssouf mulumbu moved to the bench and just returning from a two-game match ban for a red-card picked up in the now famous victory at goodison park two weeks ago.

in keeping with their playing character of late, the baggies came out with all guns blazing and bossed the first 20 minutes of the match, despite an aston villa formation that forced the albion midfield and backline to play a little bit deeper than they would have liked. while the albion had the major share of possession and somen tchoyi coming dangerously close to scoring in smacking a left-footed effort off the cross-bar, the villa tactics had been disruptive enough that an ensuing counter-attack produced the game's first goal by stewart downing.

emile heskey scored the villa's second in the 79th minute through another break-down at the back allowing a deep cross by marc albrighton to make its way through west brom penalty area and bounce in at the far corner off heskeys's head. in fact, i'm not sure that he knew too much about it until it hit the back of scott carson's goal.

paul scharner continued the excellent form he has shown since moving to centre-half and pulled one back for the baggies to give the game some hope at the end. but it was - as they say - too little too late.

as has happened before, marc-antoine fortune was left isolated, and although good at running the channels and finding space in wide positions, isn't really geared toward attacking goal directly and desperately needs to be played with a strike partner in a traditional 4-4-2.

unfortunately - and while there remains no other comparison - this was the way the albion lost matches during their last PREMIER LEAGUE campaign under tony mowbray; in that, they dominate the play, control the ball well but get caught out by counter-attacking football and making mistakes on defending at the back, especially on set-pieces.

let's hope this is not a pattern that the baggies fall any further into.

WBA 3-1 Newcastle United F.C.

2010-12-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

live text replay

roberto di matteo made a truly inspired, instructional and intelligent team selection for his starting 11 against west brom's promoted contemporaries, newcastle united.

the gaffer was really astute - and in the light of jonas olsson's continued absence through injury - to put paul scharner at centre-half. the austrian international - who has been playing as a holding midfielder in partnership with youssouf mulumbu - has been afforded a real way to relax his game, stick to the specific, technical and well-defined duties of a centre-half; as well as make better use of his natural talents as an attacking player on set pieces. in fact, it was his move to centre-half that led to his first goal for the club against everton last week. he also seems to bring the intangible quality of unifying the two central defenders, where tamas and ibanez - both excellent defenders in their own right - were struggling for the cohesion that a character like olsson - and now scharner - injects into the back-line.

likewise, the gaffer found the perfect role for graham dorrans in the holding midfield spot left open by youssouf mulumbu's two-game match suspension. the young scot looked comfortable, and with a similarly well defined set of duties in regards to his position, and like his austrian team-mate, was able to relax his game and get some much needed time with a ball at his feet in a competitive situation.

chris brunt was deployed as the central midfielder and somen tchoyi took brunt's regular place on the right wing with jerome thomas back at his usual position on the left. upon initial scrutiny, i'm sure that most people would have assumed that it would be brunt in the holding role and dorrans in his preferred attacking position. but this was real stroke of brilliance both tactically and in terms of personnel manangement.

atypcially, the baggies came straight out of the blocks, and without their usual slow start, pressed the ball from a high position with a very tight 4-5-1 formation, never allowing the toon to settle or get anything together coming forward.

peter odemwingie was excellent, tirelessly ball chasing and harrying defenders, forcing ill-concieved and desperate clearances from both the keeper and back four. his approach paid off as he later took advantage of two critical mistakes leading directly to both his goals.

however, it was actually somen tchoyi who opened the scoring on the half-hour mark. taking a short pass from chris brunt on the edge of the newcastle penalty area - and as still somewhat of an unknown quantity in the PREMIER LEAGUE - the big albion winger, holding the ball on his left foot and just long enough to see some space open up in front of him, surprisingly curled a shot inside the far post. it seemed that no one was really expecting it and being seemingly wrong-footed, he had caught both newcastle defenders and goalie alike quite unprepared.

except for a brief period in the second-half when the toon looked like they might get a goal back, the baggies were in command from the first whistle. on the heels of scott carson's excellent save from steven taylor's header, andy carrol created problems for the albion back four as he got on the end of a looping through ball that caught paul scharner desperately backpeddling and nearly responsible for an own goal. luckily marek cech, positoned well and tracking back, was able to clear the ball off the line with about a yard to spare.

other than that, newcastle were surprisingly flat and the absence of kevin nolan was more than notable.

with the score at 3-0 and the game well into stoppage time, scott carson was cruelly denied a clean sheet when peter lovenkrans scored, picking up carson's initial save from a close range shot by andy carrol. the TV replay showed carrol to have handled the ball in bringing the initial cross under control. while not intentional, it was still clearly handball and the young striker looked as surprised as anyone that the goal was allowed to stand.

this was a first-class performance and a well-timed victory helping to consolidate the baggies' return to form after five games without a win. following their first victory at goodison park since 1979, and just ahead of two important derbies - away to the villa and home to wolves - this left the albion as having the best record of last year's promoted teams as well as the being the top side amongst the four west midlands clubs.

at the beginning of the year, i had boldly picked the baggies to finish (what would be) a surprising 11th in the league. at the time it may have seemed a little optimistic, but jeremy peace, roberto di matteo, dan ashworth et al. haved worked hard and put together a better football team than i think many were aware. i knew that this team was going to be a bit of a surprise in the PREMIER LEAGUE, and a mid-table finish is beginning to look more of an eventuality than remote possibility.

their success thus far has been based on an all round excellent scouting system that has looked for competitively priced players in secondary european leagues; many of whom were completely unknown in england, as well as signing domestic top-flight cast-offs and underrated home grown talent.

in spite of this not being newcastle's day, the three promoted sides have all played beyond expectations and made a contribution towards seeing attacking football played in the top-flight in what has been the most competitive and open PREMIER LEAGUE in years. some think for the better - others, for the worse. whatever the case as to the technical state of football, it's a more entertaining competition this year, and gratifying for all the supporters of teams who've exceeded expectations and/or produced some sure-shock results.

for the moment, it's good to be an albion fan!

Ipswich Town F.C. 1-0 WBA

2010-12-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

live text replay

this was really quite unbelievable and makes one wonder at the effort that was made back at the beginning of the competition. why not have saved yourself the trouble and gone out at leyton orient or to manchester city? this was an incredibly bad performance by the baggies and deserves less consideration than condemnation.

perhaps it is merely a reflection of the times and illustrates just how devalued the domestic cup competitions have become in light of the financial worth of competing in the PREMIER LEAGUE. where once the prize money actually held value for the individual player of the day, and would no doubt represent the opportunity to make a substantial mortgage or car payment, money won from cup competitions has now been reduced to little more than chump change not worth getting out of bed for.

a wembley final ain't what it used to be.

except for the bright spot of teenage right-back, james hurst, making his senior debut for the albion, and the generally honest work-rate of players, steven reid and simon cox, there was nothing in this baggies side at all. even the 1-0 scoreline flattered their performance on the night, as it should have been 3 or 4-0.

in light of this, maybe boaz myhill did ok. but the welsh international still ended up wandering out to clear a ball and got ridiculously stuck in a challenge at the corner-flag.

the question i came away asking myself after this round of cup games was: when does a manager start to play his stronger sides in a cup run?

both birmingham city and west ham united played what were more-or-less full-strength sides in their respective quarter-finals. their opponents continued to rest some of their more important players with their focus still on league and european competitive concerns, and - in the case of aston villa - managing injuries.

roberto di matteo followed the latter example and made a full nine changes to the side which had beaten everton so convincingly 3 days earlier. although, as dave bowler suggested at the outset of the ALBION RADIO transmission, with 5 days until the next league fixture you might think about sending out your top squad at this point of the competition. after all, you've gotten this far and with only two games to go before wembley, you could more than reasonably start to think about trying to win the LEAGUE CUP.

like alex ferguson, whose manchester united were soundly beaten by an enterprising and attacking west ham side, i'm sure that roberto di matteo was somewhat confounded by his team's lack of performance on the night. while neither selected anything like their strongest side, both manchester united and west bromwich albion fielded teams that no doubt had enough talent to be competetive in their respective fixtures. but a quality of spirit was utterly lacking in each case and both managers probably felt that they had been badly let down.

i know that the gaffer takes cup competitions more seriously than many other managers. last year's run in the FA CUP was ample demonstration of this. so this performance has to be put on the players even though he might have thought about playing a stronger side in the first place. this type of match is always a nightmare for a manager, and becomes impossible to actually manage because there isn't just one or two obvious changes you could make in order to effect some improvement. with the all-around performance so poor, you wouldn't know who to bring off or bring on. even trying to think tactically becomes pointless.

in truth, ipswich town weren't a whole lot better, and the match statistics showed that, on all counts, this was a fairly even game. somen tchoyi, marc-antoine fortune and simon cox all got in creditable efforts on goal, but the better chances consistently fell to the tractor boys and their inability to finish looked as if west brom were just going to snatch this one on a sub-par performance.

however, grant leadbitter scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 69th minute after graham dorrans had fouled carlos edwards on the edge of the baggies' penalty area. while the foul looked to have occurred outside the box, it was no less than the town deserved on the night and the match was mercifully spared the extra time that was looking more and more imminent.

at the end of the day - and for better or worse - the importance of premiership survival precludes even a realistic chance of taking part in a EUROPA LEAGUE competition, the opportunity of which itself may not be as close again for a number of years, regardless of what happens in the league.

on the day, this was big waste of time and i feel really sorry for the albion supporters who traveled to portman road with realistic expectations of seeing their side go through to the LEAGUE CUP semi-finals on what was, by all accounts, a freezing and miserable night. the fact that they constituted roughly 11% of the crowd makes them the real heroes in this one, i think.

luckily, this was so far removed from what is really important that it in no way reflects the teams's current form or indicates anything much at all. this will be a completely different team on saturday. that is the one thing i can absolutely guarantee.

Everton F.C. 1-4 WBA

2010-11-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

live text replay

following the baggies historic win at goodison park this last weekend, there should be no doubt that chris brunt is a top PREMIER LEAGUE footballer, as well as the heart and soul of roberto di matteo's west bromwich albion side.

the baggies midfielder not only delivered the corner-kick that provided paul scharner's first goal for the baggies to open the scoring, but a few minutes later scored a goal of genuine world class quality, curling a 25-yard free-kick expertly over the defensive wall and with the ball dipping perfectly into the top left-hand corner of tim howard's goal.

however, and even amongst baggies supporters themselves, i have long noticed a tendency to under-rate his talent and importance to the team. there are even those who were quick to say that it was tim howard's poor reaction time and not chris brunt's expert delivery that really allowed for his goal against everton on saturday.

while everyone and his mother was raving and drooling over graham dorrans' spectacular performance in the CHAMPIONSHIP last season, they barely seemed to notice that brunt scored nearly as many goals as dorrans and was more important as an on-field leader in inspiring the performance of the team going forward.

i heard a fellow albion supporter despairing of the northern ireland international in a conversation going on right behind me in the queue at the hawthorns station following the albion's 3-2 home win over blackpool last year.

"brunt look's like he's just about given up," i heard him moan.

he went to say that the club hadn't really had a decent centre-half since darren moore was here and that he didn't fancy the prospect of meeting blackpool in the play-offs, blah blah.

the irony was that not only had chris brunt played a good game, having delivered a perfect through-ball to ishmael miller on the baggies' first goal of the match, but nottingham forest had also lost that day leaving the baggies having all but clinched automatic promotion. but black country pessimism dies hard.

while no one denies his skill in dead-ball situations, the common wisdom concerning brunt is that he's a decent left-winger at CHAMPIONSHIP level but not possessed of enough pace or close-ball control to be a top premiership player, and can't - or doesn't - track back to defend.

while it is true that brunt plays most often as a winger, it is cutting inside towards goal and playing balls through a central position that he really excels. brunt has a direct hand in a full 50% of all west brom's goals and possesses a rare vision for what's happening on the field and spotting open channels. perhaps this was best illustrated by his goal scored away to middlesbrough last season.

people love natural, uninhibited talent. conversely, they do not fully appreciate those whose success is derived through hard work and study. i doubt, for example, that growing up in belfast, hanging out, playing five-a-sides all day with his mates, that chris brunt would have stood out as the best footballer of the lot. i imagine there were probably two or three lads, at least, who would have been more naturally skilled and better footballers than he was. however, i'm sure they all grew-up to have fine careers with the public works department or working at a job in a local factory.

chris brunt perservered, developed his basic talents, became a professional footballer, and there is no doubt that he was the baggies' man-of-the-match against everton in west brom's first win at goodison park since 1979. the northern ireland international was everywhere and had a hand in absolutely everything, evidencing that criticisms of his perceived weaknesses are either outdated or were never informed or valid in the first place.

as good as the baggies were in this one, everton were particularly poor in their finishing. jermaine beckford, coming on as a second-half substitute as the toffees made a concerted effort to get back in the game with the score still 2-1, saw himself miss several chances of equalizing before somen tchoyi and youssouf mulumbu put the issue beyond doubt with a 3rd, and then 4th goal for the albion.

while the young striker gets into good positions and has real strikers instinct, he will have to work on his first-touch control and finishing if he is to live up to his obvious ambitions, which, quite frankly, look like they might be his downfall. while his attempted bicycle kick would have been a really spectacular and exciting goal had it gone in; the fact is that he had enough time to bring the ball down and try something a little more controlled. he went for glory and screwed the ball horrifically wide of the far post.

this was a really good way to get back some form in the league after a dredful run of games for the baggies last month, and generally - whilst still awaiting the return of jonas olsson - this looks to be the core of the team that should play out the rest of the season. goalie, scott carson, has been playing some of his best football ever, dorrans will have to just play himself back into form - as will ishmael miller, and with the likes of cox and tchoyi on the bench there will be enough quality to at least survive the PREMIER LEAGUE and maybe even do a bit better than that.

the other thing about brunt - and much to his credit - is that he's very durable and only misses a few games every year through minor injuries. he is also extraordinarily consistent and poor performances are few and far between. evidence that sometimes it is better to be rooted in mental acuity, on-field vision and hard work rather than be possessed of dazzling natural and physical skills.