An Elusive Final Point

Manchester City 4-0 WBA

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more than any other game i've seen this year, west bromwich albion's visit to the etihad stadium was nothing less than a highly convincing argument for full-time elite european football.

as the club's head of publications, dave bowler, had said during an ALBION RADIO transmission earlier in the season: "what are we doing in the same division as manchester city? that's what i'd like to know!"

mr. bowler's comment is, of course, a rhetorical reference to the fact that manchester city are currently the biggest spending football club in the world since being acquired by the ABU DHABI UNITED GROUP, and west bromwich albion are one of the english top-flight's smaller and more unusual clubs - being without any outside investment and required to actually turn a profit in order to keep the club a stable and going concern.

finding themselves with only a single-point needed for the magic "40-point" mark, the baggies went to manchester with modest hope that they might just actually get something from this encounter following city's apparent self-implosion, and amidst the dissaray of mario balotelli's shocking and highly distracting behaviour that helped contribute to their loss against arsenal on the weekend.

the sky-blues, who have been top of the league for much of the season - and appeared to be favourites in the quest to dislodge cross-town rivals, manchester united, as league champions - have looked nothing less than jaded millionaire superstars as of late, and a string of poor results have seen them drop to second in the table - 5 points behind united.

after having held city to a goalless draw on new year's day at the hawthorns, and considering their recent form, the baggies had every reason to believe that they might get a result - even fielding a "weakened" team from their home win against blackburn on the weekend. this was a gross miscalculation.

having dropped balotelli and re-instated the alienated wantaway striker, carlos tevez, the sky-blues were a team absolutely transformed. they took full advantage of every mistake and allowed west brom nothing as they cruised to a 4-0 win and were every bit the side that had beaten manchester united 6-1 and had looked like unstoppable favourites to win the league title back in october.

a brace from sergio aguero along with goals by david silva and the returning tevez accounted for the one-sided score-line.

in the end, this was nothing more than a chance for roy hodgson to rest the core players in his sqaud and give the likes of simon cox and nicky shorey a chance to get 90 minutes of football under their belts. while the baggies did well enough to get in at the break only 1-0 down, city cut loose in the second-half and two goals in the space of 4 minutes showed this to be a futile effort for hodgson and his men, and did indeed make one wonder what the albion (and perhaps 12 or 13 other PREMIER LEAGUE clubs) are doing in a competition with a team that has this kind of resource.

WBA 3-0 Blackburn Rovers F.C.

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truthfully, this score-line flattered the baggies. but then again, they were fairly good value for the win all around and goalie, ben foster, proved his worth to the club once again, showing why they desperately need to sign him from blues for next season.

with the score at 1-0 to the baggies, the ex-england keeper made a spectacular double save that can only be described as "game winning".

the baggies, it seemed, had learned a lesson from their recent match away to wigan and attacked aggresively from the outset. applying relentless early pressure west brom forced 4 corner kicks inside the first 6 minutes.

with captain, chris brunt, back in the side following his first major career injury, the quality of the baggies' set-play delivery was outstanding. on the fourth corner of the game, gareth mcauley rose to direct the ball into a crowd and martin olsson's attempted clearance only ended up in the roof of the rovers' net to open the scoring. while this was credited as an own-goal, it was the power and pace of mcauley's header rather than any defensive error on the part of olsson that had created the goal. olsson was a bit unlucky under the circumstances and there was little else that the swedish defender could have done.

the baggies continued to dominate for the first 20 minutes or so, but went off the boil as rovers raised their game and definitely had the better of the play going in at the break.

with the lancashire side still dominating play in the early going of the second half, rovers' striker, david hoillet, slipped a clever back-heel to aiyegbeni yakubu who had found space inside the baggies' 18-yard box. while the nigerian's effort required a smart save from foster - and with the shot rebounding to an unmarked bradley orr directly in front of goal - it was only foster's unbelievable reaction to the second effort that prevented rovers from getting back into the game at a time when they were unquestionably on top, controlling more of the ball and having the better of the run of play.

had they equalized, one could easily have imagined blackburn going on to win the match from this point, and it was unquestionably the moment on which the game turned. within 15 minuted the baggies were 2-0 up on a goal by marc-antoine fortune and rovers were a beaten and demoralized side. on 84 minutes, liam ridgewell glanced a graham dorrans cross past rovers' keeper, paul robinson, to give the score-line its proper gloss.

the baggies are now on 39 points and have all but guaranteed they will be competing for an unprecedented third year running in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE.

Ipswich Town F.C. 1-0 WBA

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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.

WBA 1-1 Bolton Wanderers F.C.

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this was - in every way - a better than average, although very typical PREMIER LEAGUE match between two teams who look, at the moment, like finishing somewhere mid-to-top table without actually breaking into the top six. as such, it was an entertaining, well played game that saw both teams with chances to win it late-on. it was both engaging and exciting. not that everyone was brilliant or there weren't any mistakes or poorly played passes; but the second-half , especially, was a display of some really cracking, determined football.

a tale of two media

as i do every saturday, i woke up, had a shower, got my coffee and tuned in the ALBION PLAYER transmission. there was no live TV broadcast in my area, so i took the game in, as i usually would, listening to the ALBION RADIO while watching the spurs/villa match on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA out of the corner of my eye.

there was a delayed TV broadcast at 8.30 PM (EST) so i did ultimately get a chance to see the match. the surprising thing was how different the two experiences were. on TV this was a terrific match that ended with both teams pushing for the win and creating chances at both ends. as digital-audio-commentary it was characterized by the announcers as having been a "dreadful game of football" with little to recommend it at the sound of the final whistle.

indeed, ALBION RADIO had been such a negative listening experience that the true quality of the match was a delightful surprise when i did finally see it. however, i couldn't figure out why dave bowler and john dunn had found it to be a match of such relatively poor quality when in fact it was a really fine example of competitive PREMIER LEAGUE football?

where the last two encounters between these two sides produced a couple of listless draws in the premiership campaign of 2008-09, both teams have improved considerably and each have new managers who have brought new character and talent to their respective clubs.

bolton may have once have been a one-dimensional team, relying on physical play, attacking from the back and the use of the long ball in getting forward. but, they are now - and especially with the arrival of martin petrov - a side that play more than a little bit of football up front, with a really superb target-man in kevin davies. surprisingly and despite a string of draws in their recent results, they possess the 4th best attack in the league at the moment.

contrarily, the albion have always relied on control of the football and superior time in possession, with a smart passing game through the midfield. roberto di matteo is now in charge at the hawthorns, and while maintaining the excellence of the midfield, he has transformed the team to be a much better defensive side, who themselves have found a first-rate striker in peter odemwingie. the albion have surprisingly been the PREMIER LEAGUE's form team since the last international break. di matteo has been named PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER-OF-THE-MONTH for september, and odemwingie the PLAYER-OF-THE-MONTH.



with jerome thomas out due to a minor leg injury, graham dorrans - who has still to find consistent form in the premiership - was played on the left-wing, alongside an accompanying midfield of paul scharner, chris brunt and james morrison. of course, youssouf mulumbu was in his regular holding position in front of the back four. gabriel tamas was back in the team, after having missed the arsenal game through injury. the gaffer seems to have an otherwise established back-line of gonzalo jara, jonas olsson and the excellent nicky shorey at left-back.

chris brunt, who i fear goes terribly underrated by the albion supporters sometimes, had a great game start to finish. while the northern ireland international was outstanding as both right and left-winger last year, in the medium of the PREMIER LEAGUE he looks to me to have finally stamped his name on the central attacking midfield role ahead of graham dorrans.

my suspicion about dorrans - and while his performance in the second-half against birmingham city had seen him begin to exert his influence and show momentary flashes of the brilliance which we all know he is capable - has yet to really make the adjustment from the CHAMPIONSHIP to PREMIER LEAGUE football. judging from his performance against blues - and in the top-flight - his natural skill, guile and pace might be most effective being played on the wing. there's no doubt that he was out of sorts against bolton, his first touch completely eluding him and his confidence unusually lacking. but then, there's just some days where nothing works and you've just got to write it off and move on.

in the CHAMPIONSHIP, dorrans was successful by virtue of the more open nature of the game at this level. he could control the ball, stand-off a defender and dictate both the direction and pace of play. the PREMIER LEAGUE however, is much more unrelenting, the defenders quicker and more skilled in shutting down the play. also, the young, scottish international carries expectations that he didn't have to deal with he when he joined the team during the PREMIER LEAGUE campaign of 2008-09.

in truth, he looks yet to have played enough and seems under some small amount of personal and professional pressure. chris brunt, on the other hand, looks composed and ready to play in the top-flight this time around.



and maybe this is why the ALBION RADIO commentary was so negative. west brom supporters are unusually attached to their talismanic players; and the under-performance of a fan favourite tends to reflect in their minds on the quality of the whole team. bob taylor, for example, played on some of the worst albion teams of all time. however, he is arguably remembered with a greater fondness than any other player of the last twenty years. consequently, so too are those that played alongside him.

youssouf mulumbu was given the albion MAN-OF-THE-MATCH award in this one, and while the congolese midfielder turned in his usual performance of tackling anything that came into his area, his distribution was poor and clearances no better than routine.

on quality of individual performance, chris brunt rightfully should have got the nod, but he has never been an overwhelming fan favourite; and having been given the central attacking role over a popular player like dorrans is never going to sit well with the baggies faithful no matter what he produces.

also, these are the kind of games - and bolton one of the teams - that the baggies are going to find the most difficult to get results from this year. the trotters are a bigger than average, very physical team whose first aim is to disrupt the rhythm and tempo of the opposition and attempt to bombard the opposing penalty area with a menacing aerial attack. they were very forceful in holding manchester united to a draw last weekend, so this has to be taken as a good result by the albion.

true to their form in constantly needing to come from behind, the baggies trailed in this match on a goal by johan elmander in the 63rd minute. the 29-year-old swedish striker had slipped into an open space behind his marker, gabriel tamas, and kevin davies showed his worth in playing a short-touch pass that left nothing more for elmander to do than blast the ball past an isolated scott carson.

a few minutes later, tamas again made a poor play in failing to clear against the on-rushing martin petrov. scott carson came out of his goal well, forcing the bulgarian to shoot wide and maintain the single goal deficit.

the baggies responded with some excellent wide, hold-up play by peter odemwingie in the 73rd minute. the nigerian striker showed patience and skill in recieving a pass down the right flank, taking on his defender, maintaining possession and waiting for the run of james morrison before crossing the ball for the scottish international to head home from about 5 yards out.



there were close calls at both ends before the final whistle, and this was probably a deserved result. even with the added expectations of their historic win at arsenal, this was a point well earned in a game that will be more typical, i think, of what the baggies will have to deal with week in week out for the rest of the season.

as for dave bowler and john dunn's inexplicably negative attitude towards this match, i'm reminded that there is a pessimistic bite in all black-country humour, that if left unchecked - and on the subject of football especially - will translate into a hopeless, abject despair and misery no matter how well things are going.

at the end of this weekend's round of the PREMIER LEAGUE, west bromwich albion sit 6th in the table and are nearing the end of a very difficult set of away fixtures. nobody would have imagined this even three weeks ago, and there's a long way to go before the baggies can think about qualifying for europe. mssr's bowler and dunn have every right to be worried... i guess?!?

Leyton Orient F.C. 0-2 WBA

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i'm beginning to think that dave bowler, west brom's head publications editor and co-commentator on the ALBION RADIO match transmissions, is one of the great minds of midlands football. not just for the fact that i agree with him on most matters concerning football and the albion; or that he often gives voice to things i had already been thinking. but rather because he comes up with some truly great ideas.

with a poor crowd turnout of 2,349 at brisbane road for a second-round LEAGUE CUP draw, mr. bowler suggested that the FA start the tournament prior to the regular season. so, instead of a pre-season made up of meaningless friendlies or the occasional participation in a local or invitational tournament, you would then be able to get through the first few rounds of the LEAGUE CUP before the league had even started. this would possibly re-invigorate a competition that has never been particularly popular and seems to attract less and less interest with each passing year.

at the ridiculous ticket price of £22, one can see why - in an environment where the "season-ticket" culture is already dominant - a supporter would resent digging into his pocket for what is being passed off as a "glamour" fixture due to the participation of a top-flight team. meanwhile, the premier league side fields no less than 11 changes to the team that played competitively in the premiership the previous weekend. this would be much less of a charade if they implemented such a scheme, as mr. bowler suggests, as well as creating a greater interest in the tournament from the outset. it wouldn't be without its problems, but i think that it would be worth it to work them out.



with that said, the albion "reserves" did their job and youngster sam mantom was pivotal in his first-team debut. the teenage midfielder gave a solid performance throughout the 90 minutes, as well as delivering the final ball for pablo ibanez to head home on the first goal and having a hand in the making of the second.

new zealand international, chris wood, scored late on to put the match beyond the league 1 side, giving him the distinction of having now scored at least once in all three major domestic competitions in which he has played.

it is also worth noting that boaz myhill claimed a clean-sheet on his club debut, as well, showing that he is more than adeqaute as back-up for scott carson. the young welsh keeper had relatively little to challenge him in this fixture, but he performed his routine duties with a solid sense of professionalism, despite some trouble with his kicking game, making a few clearances that seemed uncharacteristically tentative.

other than a late injury to substitute marek cech, which has since revealed to be a fractured metatarsal that will put the slovakian international out for the next 6 weeks, the match was uneventful and the ALBION RADIO commentary team were left having to resort to babbling banter and reading text messages with huge gaps to fill due to lack of any real action.

cech, who has started off the season with two very solid performances, will be sorely missed when the baggies travel to anfield on sunday.

i hope that the bigwigs that run the FA get a chance to hear the voices of people like dave bowler from time to time. with ideas and opinions derived from a lifetime dedicated to observing football, he is always worth listening to.

The Premier League Upon Us...

as one of the few - and perhaps the only - non-UK bloggers who writes extensively about the baggies, i am reminded by the pre-season of my relative isolation from my subject material.

there are fans who post to online forums, as well as professional journalists of all kinds - and including bloggers - who live in the birmingham area, attend the training sessions and reserve matches, as well as keep an eye on the comings and goings at the hawthorns' parking lot. chris lepkowski - whose blogging, journalism and audio/visual work can be found in the birmingham mail, is probably the most pre-eminent west brom journalist, and his name comes up quite often as a source of accurate news amongst the baggies' online community.

my main source of information - as well as my primary access to most baggies matches this last year - has been the ALBION RADIO transmissions, through the club's website; and featuring dave bowler, west brom's head publications editor, with either duncan jones or chris hall doing the match commentary. i write about west bromwich albion and their coverage through live digital-audio commentaries, overseas television broadcasts and wide ranging, diverse online media resources.





in short, i am the first person i know of to report on west bromwich albion football club through a daily analysis of online digital media - and from an overseas perspective. while the myriad disadvantages to reporting on the baggies from 3000 miles away should be evident enough, there are several advantages that might be easy to overlook. while the quality of "objectivity" is not necessarily a virtue, in and of itself, being removed from the pessimistic humour of the black country - which often converts to an unnatural, painful despair over the subject of football - there is a negativity that never colours my writing. i consider myself the quintessesntial, naive optimist as far as my support for the albion goes - a stance that is much easier to maintain from a distance.

my devotion to the albion aside, there is absolutely nothing black country about me, and i look on my visits to the hawthorns as a day-trip to a strange and exotic corner of the world where one goes for no other reason than football. it is a singularly spiritual experience in a suburban industrial wasteland.

while i do always hope for the best, i don't start every premier league campaign projecting a comfortable mid-table finish. for example, when kevin phillips left and the next signing the club made was gianni zuiverloon, i wasn't particularly filled with confidence as i knew that the club had lost a player that they weren't going to be able to replace, and this wasn't going to be as good a team going into the premiership as the side that had won the championship title the previous season. things just didn't feel right. i still hoped for a mid-table finish, but by late october - and after a good start to the season - it was clear that the club was in trouble. i still remained positive on the issue of survival right up until the loss to liverpool saw them dropped back down to the championship for the following season.





while i have been a bit worried by the lack of goals in this past pre-season - and i have to keep reminding myself that defensive organization was probably the gaffer's main concern. i mean, why else would di matteo play chris brunt as a defensive mid-fielder?!?! ishmael miller knocked in a couple of goals, but more crucially the baggies didn't concede more than one goal per match in any of their pre-season friendlies, so in that sense, it has probably been a fair success for the head-coach and his team.

most educated pundits haven't foreseen the baggies having any trouble with their attacking game at premieship level anyway, and are generally more positive about the albion's ability to find goals - and from a wide ranging source of players - than many of their most die-hard supporters. west brom boasted 19 different scorers last year, 4 with 10 goals or more. the defence, on the other hand, has been a different matter althogether. it has been evident, however, that RDM has focused quite specifically on this long time problem and addressed it with a group of successful summer signings that will go a long way to making the baggies more solid at the back.

it's expected that a large number of teams will be playing a variation of the continental 4-5-1 attacking formation this season, and it's become pretty evident from the recent signing that west bromwich albion will be one of them. football seems to be moving into a new era as teams playing the standard 4-4-2 formation become fewer and far between. indeed, variations of the 4-5-1 were decidedly predominant among teams at this year's world cup; and the success of these tactics in recent UEFA competitions suggests it will soon be the preferred formation of most top professional clubs. the albion had already started playing this system under tony mowbray, who abandoned the idea after ishmael miller's injury. it was, however, revived by roberto di matteo after last year's defeat to nottingham forest. with a free-scoring mid-field, it was something that worked well and was still an enterprising and entertaining prospect when going forward.

there have been more popular teams at the hawthorns over the years than the club as it is now. and i've never really felt like the supporters were behind roberto di matteo the same way they were with either gary megson or tony mowbray at the heighth of their successes with the club. it is a wide held belief, for example, that there hasn't been a really solid all-around team since bob taylor and darren moore were with the club and the baggies began their long-time flirtation with the premier league. while more recently, many supporters have yet to come to terms with kevin phillips' departure for blues, which came about largely due to the chairman sticking to his guns on club policy towards terms of contracts offered to older players.





this year, however, i am expecting a mid-table finish, and i believe this to be the best albion team yet to be going into the premiership. by virtue of the process of elimination this probably makes the current squad the best west brom side since some time in the early 80s before the baggies were relegated from the old 1st division, not to return to the top-flight again for 16 years.

enough of the current team has seen life in the premier league before, and no doubt it will be much less daunting than the last campaign. expecially when everyone involved realizes the quality and potentials of this particular albion side compared to that of previous premiership campaigns.

while the management has made a number of excellent signings that will make the baggies a decidedly more defensive team, they still need another striker who can play the 4-5-1 formation. ishmael miller is still a bit of an unknown quantity at premiership level, and if simon cox can get into position he's capable of finishing with the best of them. players like gianni zuiverloon might even have an easier time with the decidedly less physical game of the premier league than that played in the championship. and there are many new faces in the squad that we have yet to see how the whole thing gels. it could all be a bit of a surprise!

WBA 1-1 Barnsley F.C.

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this really wasn't a match worth writing about. however, as good entertainers - and wanting to show they are still taking things seriously - the baggies started a full-strength squad, even though promotion was secure several weeks ago. the albion had a clear understanding of their professional obligations to other teams in the competition to try and get results from as many of their remaining fixtures as possible. for example, they gave sheffield wednesday a crack at championship survival by holding crystal palace to a draw at selhurst park last week.





while we are getting to see the likes of graham dorrans, chris brunt, roman bednar, robert koren, simon cox and ishmael miller in the side, there has been a real sense of diminished intensity about these last two games. certainly no-one wants to get pointlessly injured, and the tactic of playing a very technical passing and control game made it all seem a little like exhibition football. it was great entertainment when it worked and they managed to get a couple of draws where most teams would've rolled over and given up. but, by and large, it wasn't the most scintillating stuff.

i've got plenty of opinions concerning the situation of the baggies going into the premiership and where i think english football is going. a year and half's worth of writing a weekly blog on football has taught me a lot about the game from top to bottom. it's been a great year all around. hopefully, i will continue to improve.

Crystal Palace 1-1 WBA

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

WBA 2-0 Middlesbrough F.C.

live text replay



well, there is very little that could please me more than the baggies still giving it a proper go when it is now all but a forgone conclusion that they will end the season as championship runner-ups; and, more importantly, have already achieved automatic promotion. but for simon cox to add to his season's total and get his goals tally on the year into double figures is something special again.

while the young striker has been at a distinct disadvantage in terms of team selection after the albion committed to 4-5-1 playing formation in the second half of the season, he scored what are arguably some of the club's most important goals this campaign. when the club's other strikers couldn't find any form, the young cox stepped into the starting team and scored 5 goals in as many games; and certainly, the last minute equalizer in the home fixture with QPR was a real turning point when the baggies looked as if they might be on the verge of a really perilous slip in form. however, the single-striker formation is a style that is particularly unsuited to a smaller player like cox, and this was really a bit unfortunate for him. he could have scored twenty and he really deserved a goal today.

once again, and having to listen to the match live through the ALBION RADIO transmission before getting a chance to see the TV broadcast in repeat much later in the evening, dave bowler, in the pre-game show re-iterated many of the points he had made about the state of the premiership and went on to elaborate on the trickle down effect that is accompanying increased television broadcast of football league matches and the recently announced increase in "parachute" payments made to teams relegated from the premiership.

also, as there is only a small percentage of participating teams in the premier league "competition" that are actually able to "compete". for the teams that occupy the bottom half of the table, this means that there are only perhaps 10-15 important matches a year and then 20 or 25 games that amount to nothing more than high-profile "friendlies".

i personally will miss the schedule and extra games of league football. i certainly won't have the opportunity to see 4 or 5 baggies' games in the space of two weeks with a premier league schedule, and i'd sooner visit griffin park or the county ground at swindon as travel to old trafford!



if we finish a premier league campaign in 15th place, it will be considered both a fantastic season and a major success. the problem is - and with this as an expectation, what is there really to look forward to? as one fan pointed out through the text messages, it means that west brom's season in the premiership is pretty much reduced to the black country derby and 36 exhibition games! if we're (un)lucky then the albion might be involved in battling against relegation which would give some meaning and perhaps a measure of excitement to the last few matches of the schedule...

i mean, "the great escape" was fun. but that was only four or five games, and the celebrations on the last day at the end of an otherwise miserable season.

in england - and when i was a boy - we used to feel feel quite superior and scratch our heads at the ridiculous monopoly held by rangers and celtic over the rest of scottish football. this was always taken as a major indicator of the overall weakness of the scottish game and considered a bit of a joke. unfortunately, the same thing has now happened in england with the development of the so-called "big four" and we are no longer in a position to be critical and laugh.

the english premier-league is not the competitive institution that the old first-division was. in 1976, west bromwich albion edged out bolton wanderers on the last day of the season for third place - and the final promotion spot - in the second-division. they then went on - and with pretty much the same squad - finished seventh in the first-division the following year. within two years, and following the acquisition of players like cyrille regis and laurie cunningham, the baggies went on to make a serious challenge for the title, ultimately finishing the 78-79 season coming up a goal short on the runner-up spot, which went to nottingham forest and the title going to liverpool.



a seventh place finish nowadays means qualification for the europa league and is a measure of success that will take a team like west bromwich albion many years, management that transcends genius, and a lot of cash to achieve. it is also about the most we can ever expect given the current structure of top-flight english football.

i'm not a fan of the "living the dream" ideal that the premier league promotes. this does nothing save provoke the supporters of its less prestigious clubs to harbour unreal expectations and creates animosity towards the club's management and directors. i know, for example, that jeremy peace always comes under, what can be, some pretty nasty supporter attacks for his good sense, business acumen and financial prudence when the baggies are involved in a premiership campaign.

i'm sure he looks forward to the day to day affairs of running the club in the premiership as much as he does getting a quick, unexpected and violent kick in the teeth.

what i think we all might be overlooking about next year's premiership, is that this is a much better baggies team than has ever gone into the premier league before. the trick to survival will lie in the ability of the management team to use its resources and adjust to what waging a "successful" campaign might mean and how it might be possible.



while they did well enough in all regards to win a great number of games in the championship this year, and with the talent that they have going forward, there won't be a problem in that regard. but, they shipped more than a few goals this year where the defending - while being adequate in the championship - just wouldn't cut it at top-level. i think, however, that with a change in tactics, the addition of one good centre-half, and the development of a more sophisticated defensive game they would do well enough to survive.

which brings me back to the quality of the albion attack. i thought, after seeing the TV repeat, that both simon cox' and roman bednar's goals (and certainly a lot of albion goals that i've seen this year) would make it in any league. the touch that simon cox showed on the first goal would've beaten a premier league defender of the first order just as it did gary o'neil and jonathan grounds.

roman bednar has already shown that he can score in the premier league, he just needs to improve on his last top-flight season. he was as good yesterday as i've seen him, and his lay-off from gabriel tamas long ball that set up the simon cox goal was brilliant. chesting the ball into the youngster's path was simple, effective centre-forward play at its best.

Doncaster Rovers 2-3 WBA

live text replay


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

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



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

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

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


BBC interview with jeremy peace


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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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