Reading F.C. 1-1 WBA

live text replay



almost immediately upon my return to canada the baggies winning-streak - the longest in five years, i believe - came to an end. although by virtue of a draw with the royals, they remain unbeaten in six now. while this was not one of their best performances, the albion still seem to be peaking just at the right time.

we shall see what we shall see, but the royals have really been the baggies toughest opponents all season. but then, there was a special relationship that these clubs developed in a tightly scheduled set of cup fixtures (including a replay) and a final league encounter at the madjeski stadium. all in all, these teams had a total of four matches, and three of them within the space of a month!



when the baggies won at home 3-1 earlier in the season, reading had gone from a once top championship side to a team that looked in danger of flirting with relegation. an unexpected cup run, which saw them knock out liverpool (among others) seemed to re-invigorate their season. this led to a run of good form in the league, and although it would appear too little too late, they are looking more like playoff contenders than anything else these days, and their poor start to the season has been well and truly banished.

unlike the first league encounter between these two earlier in the season, the royals seemed like they had the baggies figured out; and attacking mid-fielder, jimmy kebe, was in great form and thoroughly menacing throughout this tightly jammed little set of cup and league fixtures between the two clubs. much like swansea, crystal palace and QPR, reading knew that the key to stopping west brom was to disrupt the midfield, negate the lone striker, not let anyone get a good look at goal and be ruthless on the counter.



despite several chances falling for the baggies throughout the course of the the match, the royals' tactics seemed to work well enough. gylfi sigurdsson scored early on just past the 6 minute mark in what was reading's first real attack of the game.

playing the ball down the left flank several reading players swarmed the albion penalty box, getting completely behind the unprepared albion back-four. it was an inevitability when the cross came in and fell as an easy tap-in to the icelandic mid-fielder, sigurdsson.

but the baggies have the advantage of a team where individual skills are very high, and the albion have scored a lot of goals this year quickly and out of nothing but the skill of the particular individual(s) involved. today - and with the midfield and strikers thwarted - it was centre-half, gabriel tamas' turn to snatch a point for the baggies with an opportunistic strike as the ball came back off the crossbar from a giles barnes header following a late albion corner-kick.

i know that there are baggies fans for whom this will have appeared a disppointing, negative result and sure indication that some catastrophic slip-up in form is just around the corner. but, if the baggies win their friday home fixture against leicester, the full significance of this point - and the continuation of their current unbeaten streak at such a critical juncture in the season - will begin to make itself evident.

Notes on a Winning Streak (part 1)

again, i haven't been able to blog while in england. when it comes down to it - and as much as i love me mum - i absolutely hate using her WINDOWS computer. i've bought her a modem router so we can share her broadband service over a couple of computers. so perhaps the next time i'm here, i'll be able to write about the baggies as i see them live in the same manner that i do with the internet audio transmissions and TV back at home.

WBA 3-2 Blackpool F.C.

live text replay


i had - and quite philosophically - gone to england with four west brom matches to attend - with the expectation that 7 points from 12 would be a success. the baggies exceeded any of my hopes by taking all 12 points, as well as producing two highly uncharacteristic clean-sheets against both swansea and coventry city respectively.

i had landed at heathrow on thursday, spent the better part of two days in london seeking out (amongst other things) the best meat thali plate in paddington, before making my way to birmingham on a saturday morning for the baggies' home match with blackpool.

unlike my previous two trips to the hawthorns i got there completely by rail. this was a new experience and another small but significant step in my development as a baggies supporter. on my first visit, i came out completely on the wrong side of the pallasades complex to be able to negotiate my way by local rail to the hawthorns and ended up taking a taxi. this time, however, i found my way quite easily from birmingham new street to birmingham snow hill where a return fare to the hawthorns cost a modest £1.80.

as i exited the hawthorns station - which is about 300 yards south of the stadium itself - i saw the structure of the hawthorns looming in the distance under the cold, grey west midland sky. it was an impressive sight and i decided to take a photo. i was, however, unable to capture the true feeling of the moment.



as i continued down halford's lane with the early arriving baggies faithful - as well as a few small groups of blackpool supporters who'd come in by train - i quickly rifled through my pockets to get 3 quid in exact change ready for the programme vendor that i knew would be at the smethwick end gates. jerome thomas was on the cover of the day's issue.

i proceeded directly to the ticket office pick-up window. i found that the staff in the tickets department had already seen to it that the ticket to that day's match - which had become lost in mail - had already been replaced and was waiting for me in my home-tickets envelope. a second envelope for away matches contained my ticket for the game at swansea on the coming tuesday night. i thanked the guy at the window, purposefully slipped my members card back into my wallet and tucked my documents safely in the inside breast pocket of my coat.

then, and with due urgency, i headed for the club-shop where i had promised myself that the first thing i was going to do was buy a long-sleeve away shirt. the end of the season clear-out was on; the time of year when the current team jerseys/kit go on half-price sale, or end up as incentive giveaways as part of membership or subscription renewals. in view of the circumstance i bought a long sleeve home shirt as well. i then stocked up on a fair bit of small and sundry swag including a coffee mug, a double pack of baggies underwear, a dvd, scarf and a hat. i checked out, and with all immediate and pressing concerns seen to i had time for a smoke before going inside.

once inside the stadium, everybody was standing around or waiting in the various queues, having their pies and pints, making bets, chatting bullshit and football, as well as watching the last 10 minutes of the tottenham hotspur/blackburn rovers match on the overhead TVs before making a last dash for the toilets prior to kick-off.

i was both delighted and surprised when it was announced that ishmael miller would be given his first start since coming back from long-term injury and only having seen a couple of months worth of recuperative, first-team appearances as a post half-time substitute. this was a particularly exciting prospect and i hoped that the occasion might prove auspicious.

typically - and as in both my previous visits to the hawthorns - the baggies conceded first just on 6 minutes through an unstoppable shot by charlie adams from outside the box that bounced in off the left-hand post. i could see it coming and it was quite a good goal really. perhaps the albion back four could have closed down the move earlier; non-the-less, it was a well-placed effort and deserving of the goal. i heaved a hard, disappointed sigh in a moment that i realized i had lived before.

the mood completely changed when miller equalized. the young striker marked the occasion of his return as a first-team starter in style by scoring on 13 minutes from a perfectly placed through-ball from chris brunt. turning on the gas he completely outstripped the last blackpool defender before slotting the ball neatly through the legs of goalie, matthew gilks.



as they might be heard to say on occasion in the west midlands: "it's deja vu all over again!!"

the baggies typically controlled the game and robert koren finally put them ahead with a tremendous individual effort in the 52nd minute. the slovenian international delivered an absolutely perfect left-footed shot from outside the box, burying it in the top left-hand corner of matthew gilks' goal.

while the baggies probably deserved the lead, they did, however, always looked susceptible to the seasiders' counter-attack; and, at 2-1, all the goals had been the result of exceptional individual and team effort rather than defensive mistake. this all changed in the 72nd minute when the albion back-four allowed an incisive blackpool attack to penetrate down the left flank and provide an opportunity for a cross which brett ormerod headed home from point-blank range past an irate and flailing scott carson.

the baggies don't do anything the easy way and were lucky to get the benefit of a very close-call in the 77th minute as giles barnes was brought down on the edge of the area and was awarded a controversial penalty. graham dorrans scored from the spot and the albion hung on for what was a difficult - and perhaps unfair - but thoroughly deserved victory.

i'm not sure that i gained any huge insight into the comic black country pessimism that surrounds one in the environment of the hawthorns, but i certainly got a full dose and saw it at its most extreme today.

"well, that was a terrible game of football," i heard one older gentleman suggest to his mate at the sound of the final whistle.

back in london, and watching the football league show later that night, i saw the highlights and duly observed that it was reported as one of the better games played in the country that day.

"i think brunt looks like e's just about given up!" i heard another fellow saying later on behind me whilst standing in the queue for the trains back to west birmingham.

"they're going to be difficult to beat in the playoffs," he shook his head, continuing his assessment of the day's opposition.

brunt given up!?!?! playoffs!?!?! i thought to myself, did you miss the fact that brunty had a hand in creating both of our first two goals - one of them an absolutely perfect pass? and what the fuck are you talking about playoffs!?!?! PLAYOFFS - 'ey!!! nottingham forest lost again!!! what are you talking about???

"it's the centre-'alfs really... haven't had a decent centre-'alf since darren moore was 'ere."

it is something unfathomable that obviously runs deep and from the roots.

WBA 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday

live text commentary


well, this is definitely my last blog before i head off tomorrow night for england, and ultimately, on saturday, i'll be at the hawthorns. today's match was not only a good omen, but it left me in a good mood for the trip and in high expectation that i'll see the baggies register no less than 7 of the possible 12 points that will be available from the matches that i'll be attending.

while the first forty-five minutes was arguably the worst half of football yet played by the baggies this season, it ended up being yet another crucial test of character and collective defining moment in the albion's campaign for automatic promotion.

the first half was so bad that it couldn't hold my attention long enough to keep me from folding some socks and underwear, doing some early packing and organizing for my trip. the only bright spots were luke moore's work-rate while having to struggle with the unsuited role of lone-striker, but still capable of threatening defenses in fits and flashes; and steven reid at right back, who was easily the albion's best player in the first period.



expecting several changes at half-time, i was surprised that roberto di matteo's only switch was robert koren for jerome thomas when the teams returned. this forced a change onto the albion formation that saw chris brunt move to left wing as koren slotted in on the right. it was clear from the first whistle that the baggies were a changed team. they came straight at wednesday, set the tone and dictated the pace as they edged closer to a goal with each attack.

the game really lit up for the baggies when moore was replaced by the recovering ishmael miller, who had an immediate impact with a spirited attack on goal (as well one or two of the sheffield wednesday centre-halfs). from this point on - and barring a couple of poor finishes by the owls when they were afforded a rare sight of goal - the baggies totally dominated. at one point i was just laughing at how long the albion kept a late passing move going. in analyzing and comparing the first and second halfs it was really a performance by two completely different teams.



robert koren was ultimately the hero on the day, and deservedly so. it is rare that someone is awarded "man-of-the-match" for only 45 minutes of football, but the first half was so bad - and by both teams, really - that it couldn't have really gone any other way. youssouff mulumbu's game was one of the most schizophrenic performances of the year... an absolute shambles of a first-half, but in the second period he regained the basic skills and confidence that had eluded him in the initial forty-five minutes.

i haven't really got time to finish this, as i've now taken too long and have to get packed and get out of here. let's just say that this was an example of the baggies once again finding another important win thanks to another exceptional individual effort and performance.

see you at the hawthorns on saturday!!!

QPR 3-1 WBA

live text replay


the average west bromwich albion supporter is more likely to suffer a greater degree of anxiety at the baggies scoring first and having to defend a one-goal lead than they would having them concede first and then having to go on and score two or three goals. even the vic buckingham sides of the 1950s were prone to slow starts and coming from behind to win games. so it was of little concern - and following the standard script - that ex-west brom loan signing, jay simpson, scored on 13 minutes to give the rangers an early 1-0 lead even before the albion had had any decent possession of the football.

in an unusual plot-twist, though, the game was then lost five minutes later when matthew connolly attacked the albion penalty area unchallenged to hit the ball past scott carson to put QPR two goals up. it was evident at this point that no matter what brilliant individual or team efforts the albion are capable of producing, they were never going to win this one and most of us who were watching or listening, i imagine, started looking towards a 2-2 draw as the best possible outcome. on the day that would have been an acceptable result.



however, with the strange and exciting dynamics that make up championship football, a positive outcome for rangers was probably always on the cards from the minute that neil warnock walked in the door to take over as manager earlier in the week. i don't know what it will do for them next week or the week after that, but for the moment, the arrival of one of english football's great characters at loftus road has given queens park rangers something extra on the day that they never allowed the baggies to really get anything going.

i was reminded of the baggies' first away defeat to barnsley by this one... in more ways than one.





typically - and as he has so often done in the past - the lone albion goal was scored by chris brunt. whether against arsenal or accrington stanley, playing well or not, the northern ireland international scores goals, creates goals and urges the team into attack in the face of the most hopeless situations. again it was brunt's eye for the game, his ability in seeing all immediate possibilities, assessing the right move and then having the technique to pull it off that makes him one of the better players in league football today. with several options open in the albion attacking move, brunt's quick decision to loop a pin-point header over rangers' keeper, ikeme, produced the only west brom goal on the day in another of brunt's individual moments of vision and inspiration.



the baggies were in control for long periods of the match after this, and indeed the 2-2 score-line that the albion support was anticipating appeared imminent until a shot from a free-kick was bungled by the albion defense and the ball managed to bounce off the post, back across goal and cross the line for the final 3-1 score.

despite this dropping the baggies to third in the table, they still have a game in hand over nottingham forest - who jumped back into second-place with a late 1-0 victory over swansea. so the baggies are still "in the driver's seat", as they say, for automatic promotion. while i expect a lot of baggies fans are reaching for the panic button, we've got to remember that with leicester city and swansea likewise gaining no ground on the weekend, we're still in a two horse race with forest.

while a draw between nottingham forest and swansea would have been the ideal, today i'll take a forest victory as second option since the baggies have a big game with swans coming up and i'm much more wary of swansea challenging for second place at the end of the season. i think them much more of a potential threat than forest - especially for a team like the albion! so, all-in-all, i think that the damage on the weekend is minimal and we've just got to keep perspective and maintain belief in our baggies. we have a load of home games coming up and i can't see them turning in this type of poor performance on a consistent basis.



with james morrison making his first start in over 11 months, and ishmael miller coming on in the second-half as substitute, we're reminded once again that we're still not seeing the albion at full-strength; and indeed, might not see a really, really strong albion side until the last three or four games of the season! so, in some ways, i think you could probably congratulate roberto di matteo already, because unless we really have a sudden, drastic and extended loss of form we're already pretty much assured a top-six finish, and we're still probably going to finish second in the league and gain automatic promotion. whatever the gaffer will have achieved on the year, he has done it with a team that has been missing some really important players - and some for extremely long periods of time.

while this wasn't such a terrible result when considering what happened to leicester city and swansea this weekend, what the albion probably did lose today - and with newcastle thrashing barnsley by the score of 6-1 - was a chance at the league title, which has otherwise been a realistic goal all season.

i now concede that newcastle united is in all probability going to win the division - and well ahead of schedule. on the other hand, while the baggies will still probably edge it for the second automatic promotion place, we're going to have steel ourselves a bit and set our minds to the fact that it is going to be hard fought, nervy and will probably not be decided until sometime during the last run of matches against doncaster, middlesbrough, crystal palace and barnsley. but then, would you expect anything different from west bromwich albion?

Return to the Hawthorns

when i came to england this last september, i visited the hawthorns twice and saw the baggies play a pair of home games against plymouth argyle and doncaster rovers respectively. they won both matches by a score of 3-1. on my last full day in the country, i listened on the internet as the baggies thrashed middlesbrough 0-5 at the riverside and i returned to canada (where i saw the match repeated on TV) leaving the albion in first-place and on a nine-game unbeaten run.

i had come to hawthorns as if a pilgrim on his knees to mecca. i stood at the astle gate looking at the stadium in awe. i came out after the match and walked around the parking lot in a state of grateful elation. i felt as if the albion were invincible and that being involved with the club, these qualities were manifest in myself as well as all those who followed the baggies. as a supporter, i had a feeling of pride in my team the manner of which i just knew could not be available to those who follow the really big clubs like chelsea or manchester united.



on the eve of a huge premier league derby between the city's two biggest teams, aston villa and birmingham city, being played just a few miles away, it was truly amazing that 25,000 supporters - all sporting some variation of the navy blue-and-white stripes as a measure of devotion - should turn out for a match in english football's second-tier against a small team from the south-west coast.

blessed are the faithful, for they shall inherit promotion...

the atmosphere was great and without having ever been there before i could sense there was a real buzz around what was happening at the hawthorns in those early days of september. you could feel it in the parking lot, the stands, the club-shop... you could feel the excitement of people at the box-office picking up their tickets for the next game. the feeling followed me out onto the birmingham road, down holymore, into a taxi and on to new street station.



on the train back to bath - well away from birmingham and approaching bristol - i heard a group of teenagers, likewise returning home from the hawthorns, talking about the match. they were discussing how marek cech had just fallen short of a hat-trick when what appeared his third goal had been called back for off-side. the buzz was following me everywhere and everything with the world was right! the feeling was truly palpable!

it's been a long season and much has happened since then. the baggies have managed to hang on to second-place for the better part of the season, and have even managed to climb back into first for a few days on a couple of occasions. they have likewise found themselves briefly down to third in the table; but with a long-standing game in hand, they've always remained in control and reclaimed second spot at the first available opportunity. above all - and thus far - the baggies have met all the requisite challenges at the most crucial moments and it's been a good season.



on march the 13th, i am coming back to hawthorns, and will be there for the following two home games against preston north end and coventry city. i am also planning on going to the away match at swansea. in fact, i'm going to set my alarm and be awake tonight (tomorrow?) at 4.00 AM so i can get a jump on ordering tickets online.

for me this is a special year; and while i will be at the hawthorns for a couple of games next year, its unlikely that i will travel to england twice. i think the baggies are going to be promoted this year. whether they finish the season in first or second is the most pressing question. even if it were a playoff scenario, i have faith that the albion are going up. the baggies will be in the premier league next season and i will only be planning one football vacation next year.

first off, with the season reduced by a full eight games, it is unlikely that there will be any period that would see west bromwich albion playing three home fixtures in the space of two weeks. and while i like to think that its probable that the baggies will certainly be competitive in the bottom half of the table in the premier league, it won't be as enjoyable as the possibility of a championship title and won't yield a great deal of wins on any consistent basis.





i've learned a lot about football, and like to think that i've learned a lot about writing about football - from following the baggies this year. this was the first season that i was able to subscribe to their live internet audio commentaries, and along with the fairly healthy number of matches that have been televised, i have been able to follow every match live without having to resort to the text commentary on the BBC.



next year, i fully expect to see the baggies in the premier league and back on TV on a weekly basis. between my subscription to SETANTA SPORTS and its extensive coverage of the premier league with both live broadcasts and same day repeats, along with the regular two or three weekly live premier league games on SPORTSNET, i get every match that the premier league has on offer. still, i'm going to keep my subscription to ALBION PLAYER, and continue to listen to the albion matches live. it will be interesting to write about the comparative experience of football on TV and "internet radio", and exploring the relative qualities of both "hot" and "cool" media.

through it all my passion for the baggies will endure.

i will continue to enjoy this season for all it has to offer and suffer in attending its final outcome. i'll now to the hawthorns and see that things be well done there...

C'MON YOU BAGGIES!!!

Chris Brunt (goal of the week)

chris brunt scores against derby county at the hawthorns with a brilliant display of individual skills.