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!!!

Last Night of the Proms

oh well... as we stagger on to our first loss of the season - in the league cup and a match we could have won, funnily enough - it's been 4 games now since i've blogged, or really had the chance to do any writing. as i have been in england this last 2 weeks, i haven't really had the opportunity. the funny thing is, being in england, and actually making my first trips to the hawthorns where i saw two 3-1 victories by the baggies, i was sure i would be blogging the whole time eagerly and excitedly...



since my last blog where i was still unsure about di matteo and had questions about the baggies' tactics when they've got a single goal lead, things have definitely changed. the great thing is that i was actually there to see it when it started. the albion are now playing like a proper albion team.

Arsenal 2-0 WBA

the latest news is that we've gone out of the league cup. as i finally begin this long overdue writing, the baggies shot themselves in the foot playing against an arsenal team made up largely of younger players, when jerome thomas lost his cool with 17 year old jack wilshere - who was doing his level best to win free-kicks by diving and play-acting a la cristiano ronaldo, and thomas gave him a light smack in the face for not accepting a hand-up following a tackle and proceeding to pretend he had been kicked in the head by the albion attacking midfielder. unfortunately - and no matter how soft a slap it was , that is a red-card offense and the baggies were down to 10 men for most of the match.



up until that particular point, the albion had had the better chances and the only real shot on goal in the first half. admirably, the baggies held on for most of the match when a save by dean keily fell for sanchez watts to knock in the first goal on 68 minutes to set the gunners on course for victory and a place in the next round of the league cup. eight minutes later - and with a ten man baggies side chasing the game - leon barnett made the critical mistake of attempting to chest the ball back to dean keily, which was pounced on by an on-rushing carlos alberto vela who merely had to tap the ball home and it was all over. in his defense, leon barnett has been one of the many albion players who have seen a great improvement in his play under roberto di matteo, and while a striker can sit making horrible mistakes all day and needs only score the winning goal at the death to be a hero, there is no room for a centre-back to make a mistake without looking like a dangerous clown; so i have to feel for him, especially in light of his recent form and this being a cup game and all, where players are more likely to second guess themselves in routine situations. i can't really get down on the guy.

live text replay

whatever else came to pass, this match was lost as soon as jerome thomas got the red card, leaving a 10-man west brom to play almost an hour against the best passing team in the country. the drag of it is that the baggies were looking just as likely to win this one as the gunners until this unfortunate incident. given the numerical disadvantage that they had to endure (and leon barnett's late lapse in judgement) the albion did well enough in this one to take heart in a good performance; especially simon cox who had his best start of the year so far - and we still haven't seen the full potential of this team yet with their finest performance to date probably being the win against ipswich.

ok... no league cup this year. that's cool with me.

Middlesbrough 0-5 WBA

i took this match in live through the west brom websites's ALBION RADIO on a microsoft windows computer at my mum's house in chilcompton, radstock. i left england the next day and was then able to see it on TV as a repeat on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA monday morning.

live text replay

this one was kind of unbelievable for me, especially after my trips to the hawthorns for the plymouth argyle and doncaster rovers games. these were classic albion style matches played by a team playing a proper albion style. the team was slow to start, conceding the first goal in each game before anwering with 3 of their own on both occasions, making the wins emphatic. this baggies team has finally realized that to keep attacking is the only way for an albion side to win consistently. unlike the first 4 or 5 league matches of the season where they seemed unsure about what to do with a 1 goal lead and would concede within minutes of scoring a goal. in each of the two matches i witnessed at the hawthorns they finally found the answer: stay solid and keep a good shape at the back, play the ball through the midfield, keep going forward and look for another goal. in each of the last three matches there was the characteristic of spark-plug players to ignite the baggies performances. marek cech was a perfect example of how the presence of di matteo has transformed the attitudes of many players who were under-used and unhappy under tony mowbray. the new gaffer has already made greater use of more players and improved their performances substantially that i kind of wonder how this group would fare in the premiership?



just as marek cech and jonas olsson had been the scoring lynch-pins in the two previous matches; each scoring twice against plymouth argyle and doncaster rovers respectively - so was chris brunt the two goal scorer who set the tone and basis for the absolute rout of boro on saturday. his second goal was one of the highlights of the season so far, and required both quick thinking and skill to spot the opportunity and then have the technique to pull it off. this was classic ineptitude and lack of initiative on the part of middlesbrough and traditional albion attacking football on the part of the baggies.

WBA 3-1 Doncaster Rovers

live text replay

well, i was back at the hawthorns after having been on the saturday previous and i was treated to more of the same, as well as a more intense match. as against the argyle, the baggies went behind early on a straightforward run at the box by the rovers down the right side. getting behind the baggies' defense they delivered a low well placed cross running across goal for waide fairhurst to tap home the ball for a 1-0 doncaster lead.

just as it had been on saturday against plymouth this didn't last long as 12 minutes later jonas olsson got on the end of a graham dorrans corner and headed home the equalizer to begin the baggies' match domination and inexorable march to victory.



mulumbu has certainly been a real spark-plug in the baggies' midfield, and i suspect that it is largely on the quality of his play that the team is not missing jonathan greening at all. the albion number 21 is winning balls in a robust and decisive manner and together with graham dorrans and chris brunt seems to almost always have a hand in the outset of a move that starts the baggies forward in finding the right pass, keeping possession and building useful attack position. as my girlfriend leaned over and said to me early on in the plymouth match:

"that number 21 is always at the start of something good."

she was right.

the match was drawn 1-1 at half-time and there was a real positive air about the hawthorns that seemed to me to be lingering from saturday afternoon - like we all knew there were more goals in this one and another baggies win was in the offing.

the guy to my girlfriend's right screams in a thick black country accent:

"get the ball!!! keep the ball!!! pass the ball!!!"

and in response to the baggies trying to make something of a long ball from scott carson:

"not the long ball... it never works," and in reference to one of the doncaster full-backs, he continues, "and that bloke's a little tall to be trying that!!!"

the guy to my left moans at every poorly placed pass and questionable decision by the referee.

"c'mon roman," he yells at the albion striker, roman bednar, "get back onside!!!"

olsson scored again in the 64th minute. this time the link-up with dorrans was from a free-kick and the swedish full-back headed in his second goal of the game to put the albion in the lead.

finally, i had the privilege of witnessing chris wood's first professional goal for the albion. the 17 year old new zealand international scored the most spectacular goal of the match as he drove a scorcher from just outside the box into the top left-hand corner of the rovers' goal, giving keeper neil sullivan no chance and west brom their second emphatic 3-1 victory in the space of 4 days.

WBA 3-1 Plymouth Argyle

live text replay

i arrived at the hawthorns by taxi from new street station. initially my girlfriend and i were intending to take the local from birmingham snow hill to the hawthorns station, but were sent the wrong way by three publics-works employees who had their north/south muddled.

"we're not locals," one of them explained when i initially approached him with my inquiry.

i was really impressed by the whole experience. i had told the driver to drop us at the east stand, as that is where our tickets were. as we drove along and turned onto the birmingham road there must have been ten-thousand baggies supporters almost all wearing the blue and white stripes.

"you're fellow compatriots," my girlfriend noted at the sight of them.

and it was an overwhelming sight. where at home, here in toronto, i am unique - and somewhat of an esoteric - wearing my collection of west bromwich albion jerseys - retros from TOFFS as well the latest gear, and either my navy blue and white or my yellow and green striped scarves in the winter - in a place that one only ever sees manchester united, chelsea, liverpool and toronto f.c. represented in the general day to day fashions. but here - here at the hawthorns i was home. i was with almost 20,000 other baggies supporters all wearing some indication of their devotion: scarves, caps, training gear, and jerseys from every year imaginable... it exceeded my expectations.

while there are many aspects of the modern game that i abhor - chiefly in the form of obscene transfer fees, disgustingly excessive salaries, over-paid athletes trained to play football instead of proper footballers training to be better athletes, the idea that the national team doesn't consider players from the lower divisions, not to mention the deathly dull dominance of the all mighty bloody "big four"; i do appreciate that the oppressive large-scale hooligan element of the 1970s has been eradicated and is something that is actually not inside the stadium anymore. gone is the blind, idiotic existential rage that sat ready and waiting to create general and large-scale social disturbance on the terraces. it is a much improved atmosphere to the stamford bridge, upton park or highbury of the 1970s.

from a most biased viewpoint, the baggies' supporters have got to be the best in the country, and certainly some of the most knowledgeable fans in the english game today.



i was really impressed by the fact that the club has integrated peripheral parts of the old stadium with its post premiership era rebuilding of the hawthorns: the old fashioned turnstiles - paint-chipped and baggies blue; or the old bill-board announcing the next home match that still requires the teams and times to be changed by hand; the astle gates and wrought iron fence that surrounds the parking lot... i love the hawthorns.

the most notable characteristic of the baggies under di matteo's management has been the resurgence in spirit of players who had been under-used, under appreciated, and under achieving with tony mowbray in charge. today it was marek cech's turn to show his best stuff.

the albion went behind early on a pretty soft goal by plymouth's jamie mackie. shelton martis got turned the wrong way as the argyle attack came down the left flank, penetrating the albion area and trickling an acute angled shot past scott carson. my heart sunk just a little as it was the first time i remember the albion ever being behind in a match this season.



"welcome to the hawthorns," i heaved a disappointed sigh and said to my girlfriend.

just past the half-hour mark, however, everything came right again as shelton martis made up for his earlier mistake by scoring the equalizer from a graham dorrans corner kick. i had seen my first goal by the baggies at the hawthorns and was ecstatic jumping to my feet and cheering along with the other 20,000 albion supporters present.

the smethwick corner sang psalm 23.

martis has been a consistent fixture in the baggies back four since he came into the squad, but his play has seen improvement under di matteo as has that of leon barnett, luke moore, marek cech, and even craig beattie (before he left).

while i liked tony mowbray terrifically, as he was a good spokesman for the team and someone who could analyze football with the best of them, i'm not sure how well he did with the baggies last year. he managed the particular team he had well enough in the championship; but in the premier league his biases and idealistic approach to the game were not in tune enough with the players he had. i admired his commitment to what i call "the ishmael miller project", but it came at the expense of not giving enough opportunity to most of the aforementioned players, especially cech and moore; and may have been the main reason that the albion were relegated. he didn't seem to know what to do when miller got injured and was gone for the season (and still hasn't come back) and was adamant and persistent that borja valero was the best technical footballer in the side. so what?!?



under di matteo, it is obvious that everybody feels better. chris brunt didn't leave for rangers - as was feared earlier in the summer, and is playing a key role on the pitch going forward and in set play. roman bednar's back and scoring goals. luke moore is an absolutely transformed player and started the season completely on fire before picking up a small injury in training that kept him out for a couple of weeks... everybody has been brought into the side now, where before there was a divided team of those who were in and those who were out.

about five minutes before the end of the half marek cech scored a brilliant goal from 35 yards out that he absolutely buried in the top right hand corner of the plymouth goal. for me this was also a brilliant moment. i was at the hawthorns and having the best time imaginable.

again, the smethwick led the chorus to psalm 23.

it looked as though cech had his second goal as he sprinted onto a header in the box but was ruled offside.

from where i was sitting in the upper tier of the east stand he hadn't looked offside when he started his run.

"OOOHHHHH REF-ER-EEEEEAAAAA!!!" moans the guy to my left.

i haven't spotted the flag yet and the hawthorns is still buzzing.

"hey, we can all sit down," the guy on our right says to my girlfriend, "'e's been called offside!"



cech eventually found his second goal from a header in the box with about 5 minutes left. once again the smethwick sang two choruses of psalm 23.

afterwards, strolling down the birmingham road trying to get around and in front of the traffic jam emanating from the stadium, a guy sipping beer from a paper bag asks me what the final score was.

"3-1," i reply.

"we was losin' one-nil," he says, seeming a bit surprised.

"yeah, but we scored three after that," i say.

"good on ya'!" he salutes me with his paper bag.

my perfect afternoon at the hawthorns was complete.

Old Baggies Never Fade Away...

it seems, these days, that they just get transfered to fulham football club. much to my surprise, the man who has captained the albion - and i think probably been their most consistent player - for much of the last 5 seasons, has requested a transfer; almost invariably so that he can end his playing days in a premiership side that has acheived some measure of consolidation in the top flight. the club in question - and the only one reported to have put in a bid for him so far, has been the recent destination for 1 or 2 of his ex-teammates who've gone on and done well there too; and that's fulham f.c.

what thoroughly surprises me is that i've come to see jonathan greening as being the embodiment and individually most representative player for the albion over these past few years, and thought he had an eye to staying in football beyond his playing career. i took it for granted that west brom was where he would want to do this - much like tony brown before him, and take advantage of the opportunity to go into coaching and other areas of the game - perhaps even management - but always west bromwich albion to the end!

his request for transfer is also - and quite suddenly, i might add - out of step with his declarations within the last couple of months of his loyalty to the albion and calling for his teammates to stay and show similar commitment to the club - and in light of paul robinson now going to bolton, and marc-antoine fortune signing with tony mowbray's celtic... so this brings me to the question - and considering the time-line involved in these events: has the arrival of roberto di matteo at the hawthorns had any influence in greening's now wanting a transfer, where he seemed to want to stay before? what does this bode for the future?

again, it throws the appointment of di matteo as "head coach", and the club's switch to a european style of club management into question. what type of manager is di matteo going to be? anybody who's watched football in the last 15 years knows what a great player he was; but, he seems much less popular with the fans whom he has had to serve in the recent past. there was a post on the BBC 606 from an MK dons supporter, warning that he will ruin the constitutional structure of the albion playing style and replace it with a boring italian (read: defensive) style of football.

while some of the dons results would tend to bear this out; i would suggest that DM is at an early enough stage of his career (the baggies is only his second appointment at the helm of a club) that he may not truly have found a particular or committed style yet; and is, at this point, just concerned with producing good results with whatever situation is at hand. his record from last year as the dons' gaffer saw him manage the team to 27 wins, 11 losses, 14 draws; and was good enough to take them into the play-offs where they ultimately lost the two-legged semi-final 7-6 on penalties to scunthorpe united. while i saw both legs of the encounter, i could not make much of an estimation as to di matteo's management style - or what type of football he prefers to see his teams play. but his achievements at MK showed that he relied on good defensive performances, as the team did produce an awful lot of single goal wins in a large number of low scoring games. but then, perhaps he was clever enough to know that this was the constitutional nature of the team, and he played it to its strengths?

in the final analysis, he took a freshly promoted club from league 2 and led them to a place in the promotion playoffs for a place in the championship - and came up short only on a missed penalty by ex-teammate and super veteran tore andre flo. so in the end - i just don't know... let's hope that jonno has a different motivation for wanting to leave other than a lack of faith in the new gaffer - or perhaps he knows something that we don't?

more than likely though, i believe that it is just another example of the ever widening gap - both financially and in terms of prestige between the first and second tiers of english football, making the type of loyalty that was practiced in professional football prior to the massive money and pure pop culture of today impossible for all but a particular type of individual who we have not seen in a long time and may never encounter again. after all, fulham is a team that i think is fairly well suited to a player like jonno, and he should do well there.

in the 1976 FA CUP final, contested by perennial 1st division power-house manchester united; and (then) mid-table 2nd division club southampton; arguably the most pre-eminent international who played in that match was the saints' mike channon. in era's previous to this, famed internationals played routinely in the old 2nd division. but now - in the days of the premier league - the english national side doesn't consider anyone outside the premiership, who isn't a regular starter for his club; and - goalies aside - generally they try and keep selection for international duty to the really big clubs. this is a reflection of how much the prestige gap between the "big four"/consolidated premiership teams, the relegation/promotion battlers, and the established championship teams has grown considerably since the founding of the premier league; and in the process destroyed the possibility for an individual to choose to be loyal to a team - in a professional context anyway.

if a footballer has international aspirations, then he is forced to request transfer upon relegation of his current club. stewart downing at middlesbrough is making the news today as he has been transfered to aston villa for £12 million. here is a case where a young man had come through the academy system, and gone on to play for the local team he had grown up with and had supported as a boy. one of his quotes to the press - as reported on the BBC - was particularly poignant in addressing the situation:

"I loved the last World Cup, but I want to play a bigger part this time. I have to be with a good Premier League side if I want to do that... I hope the fans understand that I'm ambitious and want to win things and this move gives me a chance of that. But I'll always be a Boro fan."

as far as the english national side goes, it weakens the whole structure, by possibly limiting itself out of players who might become good - and useful - international footballers. as we've seen in the past, good club players and those who can shine in the forum of international play are very often made of completely different stuff. especially nowadays, when the ratio of foreign players in the premiership would make it more of a cosmopolitan league, and not necessarily where the best english players at any given position might be playing. in short, i would contend that while the premiership is the finest cosmopolitan football league in the world, and definitely the place to go and seek out one's best and brightest; just don't discount the quality of the much more overtly "english" championship league, and some of the really good young potential english internationals to languish in someone else's - or even popular opinion's - underestimation of what one might find there.

for example, with the number of english goalies who play in the premier league limited to a very few, it's very possible that the national side doesn't have the best english goalie playing for them. considering the number of internationals from the smaller footballing nations who have players currently active in the championship - i would imagine that this potential oversight is very possible.

jonno, however, is not an international and has no such interests to protect. he has, as well, declared that if the club receive no reasonable offer for him, he'll continue to don the navy the white stripes and play his hardest to get the baggies promoted again. in these days of miracle and wonder, of multi million pound transfers, of domestic league domination by a highly predictable few and choices dictated by highly prohibitive costs and standards; the concept of "loyalty" - the idea of a man dedicating himself to the improvement of a whole of which he is a committed and influential part, is a long lost quality whose capabilities to achieve... to create a victorious intangible, will never again be seen in the top-flights of professional football. let's hope that we traded it in for something of equal value.