Reading F.C. 3-2 WBA

match text commentary

anyone listening to the FREEradio broadcast of this match would have heard tony brown's voice begin to crack as he fought to hold back the tears at the end of one of the most dissapointing results for the club in recent memory. likewise, steve clarke appeared bewildered, red-eyed and shaken when he spoke to the BBC following the final whistle.

in a video interview on the club website, romelu lukaku revealed that he had actually, in fact, been reduced to tears in the dressing room despite his brilliant on-field performance. besides scoring two goals, the teenage striker had hit both the post and crossbar in the course of the game.

i pride myself on being a passionate but mature football fan. i generally look on my team's losses and points dropped throughout the course of a season with a philosophical eye. i am usually able to move on from the disappointments of the day and look toward seeing my team rectify matters at the next opportunity. however, there is one - sometimes two - fixtures in the course of every season that i struggle to come to terms with.

two years ago there was the infamous match away to blackpool that was marred by the blundering performance of referee, michael oliver. last year, my frustations were shared equally between stoke's visit to the hawthorns and the new year's day fixture (also at home) against everton. but this loss to reading was particularly cruel and will be nagging at me until the baggies pick up their next three points.


when gianni zuiverloon clumsily failed to control and gave the ball away to jimmy kebe in the dying moments of their 5th round FA Cup replay with reading in 2010, the baggies were 2-1 up and looked certain to be in the draw for the quarter-finals. in a single fleeting moment that all changed, as kebe took advantage to set up brian howard for the equalizer and send the match into extra-time.

while this levelled the score 2-2, and the baggies were still theoretically in the game, the pendulum had swung and west bromwich albion's hopes for a cup run were already gone. within minutes of the kick-off in extra-time the royals were up 3-2. the baggies would not get their opportunity to make up for the semi-final loss to portsmouth two years earlier, and zuiverloon would never start for west brom again.

i remember waking up in the middle of the night, haunted by a crushingly oppressive, nightmarish feeling of emptiness and disappointment. i soon got over it though, as their push for automatic promotion started to pick up momentum and nottingham forest's challenge began to fade. important wins against blackpool, derby county, coventry, swansea and preston north end re-energized both the team and supporters alike.

again, and this time in an all important PREMIER LEAGUE fixture, jimmy kebe came back to haunt the baggies and cause me to suffer the greatest amount of grief and frustration that i have yet felt since the baggies' most recent promotion to the PREMIER LEAGUE.


after making their best start to a top-flight season in over thirty years, west brom have suffered a drastic loss of form since having to play swansea away. they have generally been slow to start and their performances in the first half of all their most recent matches have been flat and unenterprising. while they have played better football in the second-half, this has been a real problem and has all too often lead to early capitulation and an inability to come from behind. the one exception to this being the recent home victory against norwich.

however, their trip to the madjeski stadium saw the baggies return to form - in terms of a footballing display anyway. aside from the early moments of the match, which saw the royals on the front foot and winning the the first few corners, the baggies were in control and had the majority of possession with james morrison and romelu lukaku linking up brilliantly. their attacking partnership almost always looked dangerous going forward and lukaku's brace seemed like it would be enough to see the baggies get back on track.

george thorne, having been brought back from a loan spell at peterborough, has done really well in covering the holding midfield role. he made his first team debut at old trafford on 24 hours notice and has been putting in solid performances since. thorne looks like he will be a real asset to the club in the immediate future. with claudio yacob still out injured and youssouf mulumbu having departed to the AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS there was good reason to be concerned, but the 20-year-old thorne played with maturity and a very clear, uncomplicated vision of the game.


in fact, the overall defending was excellent for 82 minutes. with jonas olsson having returned from a groin injury and gareth mcauley keeping pace with the high standards that he set last year, there is still much evidence of roy hodgeson's organizational work in the side, evidenced by the disciplined shape of the back four. until the last few minutes ben foster had very little to do in goal, and when the worst happened there wasn't much he could do about it anyway.

that's why this was such an absolutley unbelievable loss. for 82 minutes the baggies were the better of the two sides by a long way, and for the first time in weeks were playing an expansive passing game and really getting on top of the other team. they played at a more contolled pace, had the majority of possession and instead of sitting back, being slavishly over reliant on the principles of counter-attacking football, they got hold of the ball and worked themselves into precise and measured attacks.

it is unbelievable just how much the baggies were in control of this game. it was their best performance in weeks and it is inconcievable that they contrived to lose it on two very late set plays following jimmy kebe's opener.

i still didn't see it coming when the first reading goal went in, and i am convinced that they would have held on for the win - perhaps even having to ride their luck a bit - if olsson hadn't blundered into kebe and/or handled the ball to concede the penalty. i mean, suddenly dropping two-points out of the blue is a big let down. especially having been so comfortably in control.


to then not even be able to see it out on a free-kick near the centre-circle... the whole thing was just beyond belief. it was even beyond analysis and there was no real technical reason for it. it was all just a bit of a fluke. of course, you can blame olsson for the idiotically clumsy challenge that gifted reading the equalizer, and it was clear that ridgewell lost concetration on the free-kick and was caught looking the wrong way when the first goal went in. however, this was still quite incredible on any and all accounts.

whatever mistakes were made (the penalty aside) none of them were really bad enough to merit giving up three goals inside 8 minutes. the most unbelievable thing is how easy a time the supporters give jonas olsson. he was directly responsible for the home loss to stoke and nobody said a thing. against the royals, he dives into a bad tackle and gives away a pointless foul that set up the equalizer and everyone is rushing to blame rosenberg, dorrans, brunt or ridgewell... ridiculous!

we all knew that when the albion was in third place - and with a chance to go top of the league - that it wasn't going to last forever. the stated goal of the club at the outset of the season was to get to 50 points and improve as a mid-table side. that goal is still achievable, and the supporters who phone in to tom ross on the GOALzone, raging and ranting in a rabid, homicidal lather that "jeremy peace has no ambition..." would do well to remember that.

we have to remind ourselves, as well, that this is traditionally the time of year when the baggies struggle with the demands of the PREMIER LEAGUE anyway. claudio yacob, yussouf mulumbu, goran popov, peter odemwingie, steven reid, marc antoine fortuné, shane long and zoltan gera are all either injured or otherwise unavailable. jonas olsson has just come back after being out for three weeks with a groin injury and the side does look a bit threadbare at the moment. all things considered, this was a good game with an unfortunate freak result, and they wouldn't generally lose too many matches on a footballing performance of this quality. it was just horribly ironic that it had to come after a run of poor games coupled with even poorer results.

we didn't play well against either fulham or arsenal and we probably still should have at least drawn both those matches!


with a run of difficult fixtures coming up, i'm hoping that they realize that with nothing to lose, it's time to throw caution to the wind and find the energy to nick a few more points.

i'm sure everyone remembers that two years ago we didn't win a game from november until february. we then went 8 games unbeaten and lost only a single match in what remained of the campaign. on the last day of the season somen tchoyi scored 3 goals in ten minutes to earn a 3-3 draw away to newcastle that propelled us into 11th place. just as with reading scoring three goals in 8 minutes, these things don't happen everyday... or even every season!

i think the albion's season will pretty much turn on the game against villa at home. as long as they put their foot on the ball and control the game early, they should be able to come up with a result against a hugely inconsistent villa side that has now fallen into the relegation places.

it's a tough time now, and something that can be hard to live with as a fan. but i'm still sure we're going to do no worse this year than we did last year, and that's at the very least.

Reading F.C. 1-0 WBA

live text replay


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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

live text replay


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

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

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



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

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



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

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

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



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

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

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

WBA 2-1 Manchester City F.C.

live text replay




while it probably wasn't something too many of us were expecting, and certainly wasn't much of a concern with the challenge of the PREMIER LEAGUE once again upon us, but with one more victory in this particular competition and the albion are on a cup run!

while the LEAGUE CUP has become, more and more, an unwelcome addition to the fixtures list, it is a good gauge as to how and where football is going (or maybe has already bloody gone!) in the early part of the 21st century.

the baggies beat the "richest team in the world" (and as such, one the few that actually needs to win this competition) in front of a pathetically small crowd of just over 10,000 at the hawthorns. having had 23,000 at the hawthorns for the league match on the previous saturday, this is overwhelming evidence that in the era of the season ticket culture, there is less and less interest in the domestic cup competitions, except as a back door to europe for the bigger clubs who might need it.

i think there is probably a general opinion that when it comes to the LEAGUE CUP, players, supporters and pundits of all kinds would say that there is too much football played in england today, and that a second domestic cup competition is superfluous and unnecessary. even with the incentive of a place in european competition to the winner, the point is largely moot as the CUP usually goes to a top-5 team anyway.

roberto di matteo made ten changes to the side that beat blues on the weekend - and if nicky shorey weren't the only fit left-back in the first-team, it would have been a fully changed starting eleven. it's a far cry from the 1970s when albion legend, john wile, would start all 60 fixtures in a season for the club.

i think it's fitting to invoke the footballing heroes of yesterday, as the baggies now look like a top-flight team capable of a cup run at any time, just as they were in the days of cyrille regis, tony brown and under the tenure of manager, ron atkinson.




the best player of the first-half was without a doubt semon tchoyi. making a series of terrorizing runs at the sky blues' defense down the left wing, the new albion man showed himself to be a player of pace and strength as, on several occasions, he took on multiple defenders and continually created problems for the city backs and their goalie, shay given.

in many ways, this was pretty classic cup fare. the first goal was a moment of world-class football that one might expect from a team with £100 million of talent sitting on the subs bench. brazilian striker, joao alves "jo", sent the ball flying into the albion net with an unstoppable shot on the turn from 20 yards out. it was the final product of a routine break on the heels of an albion corner-kick and could hardly be blamed on the baggies' defenders. a well directed flick saw the brazilian get the bounce of the ball on the edge of the box and it was simply a moment of top class finishing.

but the baggies are not the team that was here in 2008-09. even though its early days, there is a confidence in the side right now that a west brom side has never taken into the premiership before and it has pervaded in the first few cup games as well. a few more weeks and we get through the arsenal, bolton and manchester united fixtures, we'll know a little better where we are. but already, this is a good footballing side who've remained unfazed by going a goal down to both blues in the league and manchester city in the LEAGUE CUP and possess a sense of poise and top-flight stature that looks to be growing by the minute.

after the city goal the baggies came back with both semon tchoyi creating an opportunity for giles barnes which required a truly quality save from given; while a mesmerizing run by graham dorrans and a cross in for the head of roman bednar saw the ball go a few inches wide of the city upright. the veteran sky blues keeper showed why he has been one of the top goalies in the english game over the last ten years, and made it seem for awhile as if there might be no breakthrough for the baggies on a night of top class goalkeeping.





undismayed by the goalkeeping heroics and half-time deficit, the albion kept up their domination in possession and shortly after the restart, gianni zuiverloon took advantage of a slip by a manchester city defender on the edge of the box and blasted home for a more-than-deserved equalizer.

while it was clear that without having had any match-time this year both strikers were a little rusty, and this - along with shay given's superb performance in the manchester city goal - was also a factor in the baggies not running up a two or three goal lead. but there is something special about simon cox and i hope that di matteo can find use for him in the line-up on a more regular basis. in fact, he may have a very bright future as an impact player wherever his career takes him. without being the best player in the world, cox has the ability to consistently score goals at any level of football you might care to mention - the PREMIER LEAGUE included.

while there is still a long way to go, the baggies have started the season out really well, and have surprised more than a few pundits as well as some of their own hard-core supporters.

if the baggies can manage to get a good draw and make it into the last-eight teams, it will probably be worth focusing a little more effort into this particular competition. especially as cup runs will continue to give players like cox, bednar, tchoyi, meite and zuiverloon a chance to be involved in the team, playing competitive football and bringing real depth to a side that isn't the biggest squad in the first place.

i was really impressed after this performance. last year, i would worry about certain players not being in the side through injury or suspension; namely graham dorrans and chris brunt, but there were also time last year when the club was really struggling with the fitness of its strikers. this year, i think that the gaffer has done a first rate job with bringing in the players needed and keeping the core team from last year together around which to build.



while the practical outcome of this match is progression to the next round of the LEAGUE CUP, the performance of the albion second-team reverberates and speaks to their potential in the league as well. jerome thomas looks doubtful for saturday but i expect most of the squad who beat blues at the hawthorns last saturday to be starting at the emirates on the weekend.

BBC football prognosticator, mark lawrence, has predicted a 3-0 win to the gunners. while it is possible, the albion have nothing to lose going into this match and whatever they do (short of losing by 4 goals or more) there isn't much expectation for too many teams traveling to the emirates to take on the gunners in any competition anyway!

the last time the albion went to play arsenal the match ended 3-1, with chris brunt scoring a late consolation goal from a free-kick. i had always been impressed by that goal, as the baggies were on the wrong end of a lot of scoreless losses that season. i remember thinking, wow! what a great goal. if only they'd kept out the 3 at the other end they would have won that one!

there was little consolation in the last premiership campaign, but even arsene wenger knows that the albion - by virtue of how they've played their last three matches - are potentially one of the most difficult sides that the gunners will have had to face so far.

i look forward to seeing who we draw for the next round of the LEAGUE CUP too.

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 3-1 Derby County

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given what i was seeing from baggies' fans posting to the BBC 606 following the FA cup loss to reading, i have to say, i can't believe the level of negativity of what i was reading. for one thing, we're supposed to be west bromwich albion supporters and that means that you're certainly not here to celebrate the ritual of perpetual victory. if that's what you're looking for there's always manchester united - and they're much easier to follow than the baggies, choose any medium you will. however, there is no doubt the FA cup loss had further drained the team - both physically through the fact of the replay, and emotionally from the manner of the loss. while i found the online reaction to be generally alarmist and overly negative, the 606 posters are not completely without a reason to be concerned.

i read posts that had already written the baggies off as far as automatic promotion goes, and others that couldn't see the baggies being good enough to even wage a successful playoff campaign. as we have dropped to third in the table for the second time this season and haven't won in four starts, it seemed like good deal of baggies supporters were hitting the panic button or had already given up completely on the albion for the year. you've got to remember that two of the four games without a victory haven't counted in the league. and there's plenty of historical precedent for this kind of loss. this isn't the first time ever that an albion defender has lost their nerve or made a poor decision that caused a shocking and unexpected loss in injury time.



what is true - and should be a point of concern for any supporter - is that the albion are not playing terribly well at the moment. but, there is just enough individual inspiration in the side that they can get through a rough patch like this, still get results and keep pace with their promotion expectations. if you look at the cycle of league fixtures over the course of the season, you'd probably see a definite pattern and what's going on right now isn't something that we haven't experienced before. i still believe that the baggies will be challenging for the league title with newcastle throughout the remainder of the season, and i saw nothing in today's home victory over derby to shake my faith in that belief.

while graham dorrans seems to have gotten all the attention this year, it is chris brunt who drags the baggies forward and pushes the team into attack at the most critical moments. he's a real leader on the pitch and makes a lot happen going forward. there's no doubt that graham dorrans came into the side under much more dramatic circumstances than did chris brunt, but i still believe that brunt is the heart of this year's albion side and his performance has been a decisive factor in regards to our relative success this year.



my view was somewhat vindicated in today's win over derby county. the northern ireland international, controlling a low, sharp pass from simon cox on the wing, single-handedly created and scored the equalizer when the baggies looked as if they were going nowhere, and heading for a truly disastrous loss. he then put the albion ahead minutes later by picking up on some scrappy play in the derby box following an albion corner and took full advantage when the chance fell to him.

the other factor which made the difference and saw the baggies turn this one around was simon cox' inclusion as a substitute for moore - going against the conventional wisdom that the baggies' young striker is unsuited to the team's current 4-5-1 formation. luckily, cox is a tireless runner and his work-rate is good on his worst days. today it really paid off. cox netted the albion's third goal on a through-ball from fellow substitute, james morrison, and clinched an absolutely vital win for the baggies. the three-points - coupled with leicester city's 3-0 win over nottingham forest - puts the albion back into second-place with extra points and a game in hand. with a run of home fixtures coming up and a fair number of players coming back from short-term injuries, the baggies are back in the driver's seat and should be able to challenge for the league title - if not win it outright!

the other thing about BBC 606 that i noticed was the posters quick and easy dismissal of the FA cup in favour of concentrating entirely on promotion. these folks have forgotten how good it feels to win an FA cup. they fail to recognize - even with the current state of english football - that a cup final win, especially the FA cup, is a thing that is remembered and celebrated for years and years after the fact; and a win by a team from the second-tier would be a memory that would last its supporters a lifetime.



roberto di matteo showed a great deal of creativity in his team selection and his use of substitutes in getting today's win. making a full five changes to the starting squad from wednesday night's game, he managed to coax a deceptive 3-1 scoreline from a match that was really sub-par and lacking in any real initiative until the last twenty minutes. the gaffer surprised everybody by taking out both joe mattock and gianni zuiverloon. while marek cech is healthy and it was expected that he'd be given a start today ahead of mattock, it was widely thought that di matteo would still play zuiverloon simply by virtue of the fact that he has no other right-backs in the squad. however, the gaffer moved recent signing gabriel tamas to the right-back position and played abdoulaye meite in the centre.

while di matteo's defensive gambit worked well enough to see to it that they only conceded a single goal, it was once again the baggies' ability to score quickly and make goals out of nothing that won the day.

make no mistake about it, as uninspired as this match was, the last twenty minutes were the most critical football that the albion have had to play this year, and they showed they are a team of no small character - especially in light of the potential lack of confidence that might have haunted them after the crushing manner in which they were knocked out of the FA cup only days ago. today was a huge step towards fulfilling the most demanding of this year's expectations.

WBA 2-3 Reading F.C.

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so ends this year's adventure in the last romantic dream of heroics still available to a club like the albion. it was dramatic, heartbreaking, and completely unnecessary. with a 2-1 lead and only seconds left the albion should have held on to this one. in a moment echoing the first nine seconds of this fixture's reverse encounter, gianni zuiverloon failed to control and clear a routine ball that allowed jimmy kebe to once again roast the young dutch fullback, setting up the equalizer for brian howard with about a minute of injury time left to play.

barring the possibility that the baggies might still win the day by taking this one to penalties, the momentum had, in a moment, swung to reading and their superior late-going tactics proved the albion's undoing. the royals - knowing that they now had to hit early and protect the lead against a tired baggies attack, did just that. within three minutes of the kick-off in extra-time, reading jumped on abdoulaye meite's failure to clear the ball and gylfi sigurdsson fired a shot from about 25 yards out that completely beat the baggies' defense, caught scott carson off his line and curled into the back of the net.

in watching the post-game interview with baggies' head-coach, roberto di matteo, you could see the puffiness and swelling around his eyes from where he had been fighting back the tears. it was evident that he was distraught, and possibly suggests the deeper implications as to what difficulties the gaffer has to face in managing a thin squad over the next few weeks and still maintaining progress in the league.



while good old tony mowbray had a cool detachment and a technical analysis of the situation that always made me feel better about being an albion supporter on the worst of days; roberto di matteo is much more of an emotional character, and with his understanding of just how english football works at its best, he gets my sympathies for having to bear how utterly frustrating and upsetting it can be at its worst.

di matteo was truly pained by this, and i could feel his pain like it was my own. in the modern game of english football, a young, talented side like the baggies has so little time to accomplish anything before the big clubs start sniffing around and players begin looking towards furthering their own careers. in some cases it might be a move to help with their international aspirations and in others simply for the better money and big-club prestige.

one could see in the gaffer's face the frustration of working under conditions where the high level of expectations that must be met within the space of a single season is absolutely over-whelming. while kevin phillips is lauded as a modern day hero at this club, we've got to remember, he was only here for two years. tony brown was here for 17 years - and stuck with the baggies through relegation and three years in the second-division without whining how he deserved better and asking for a transfer to fulham or bolton. in 1976 he scored the famous goal at boundary park that took the albion back to the top-flight. they don't make players like tony brown anymore.

to their credit - and inside the framework of the 90-minutes - the albion were the better team. they carried almost a 2-1 margin of superiority in all aspects of play. this, of course was reflected in the score (2-1) and how it appeared the game was going to end. the albion were set to win on a brace of goals by robert koren against the single first-half equalizer of jimmy kebe, as these two continued their personal goal scoring duel which they had established in the initial fixture.



this wasn't the first time this year where i was really hurt by a result, but this one runs deeper than most. i continually woke up throughout the course of the night depressed and still in disbelief that things had unraveled so quickly. to be so close and then see it all evaporate in the space of a few minutes was devastating.

as the half-filled hawthorns would testify, the FA cup has become so devalued and winning promotion to the premier league takes such a much greater precedence that only a team like reading - who really have nothing to lose - can realistically focus on a cup competition anymore.

the only good news of the day was the return of james morrison after more than a year out through injury. however, roman bednar picked up a groin-pull which might see him unable to start this saturday against derby.

today i feel as if my faith has been destroyed by the state of english football as it is in the year 2010. with the baggies now winless in four games, a victory against derby this weekend is desperately needed just to cheer us up - forget the FA cup, forget the league table, forget promotion, forget the premier-league... let's just get a win and enjoy the day!

Cardiff City 1-1 WBA

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well, this was a real hard day's night... and another draw for the baggies as they managed to further their unbeaten streak (9 games now) and (at least for the next 24 hours) are again tied with league-leaders newcastle on points, but find themselves in first place by virtue of superior goal difference. the toon have a game in hand and will be home to coventry tomorrow. perhaps the sky-blues and their improved form of late can give the baggies a small helping hand in their push for automatic promotion?

at the outset of the match it was revealed that roman bednar had a back injury and would be sitting this game out. injuries couldn't come much heavier after what the baggies have sustained this last two weeks. funnily enough though, bednar was named as an non-playing substitute, since di matteo now finds himself without enough healthy players to even field a full first team. bednar did no warm-ups, his presence entirely symbolic, and was there only to see that there were enough bums sat on the bench that it might make up a whole squad.



as expected, both new arrivals to the albion, andy slory and frank nouble, got starting spots on the wing and midfield respectively, with albion sticking to the 4-5-1 formation that has been so successful during the baggies' recent run of form. unfortunately, i can never understand why di matteo leaves luke moore as the lone striker, as it is a game most unsuited to the ex-villa striker's style and ability?!?!

back in the "hot media" environment of ALBION RADIO once again, there was a controversial and questionable penalty called on jonas olsson. although, i have a suspicion that any good cardiff-biased commentary would have reported a stonewall penalty rather than a questionable decision. however, i wasn't able to catch up with cardiff city transmission before they signed off as i usually would. peter whittingham promptly dispatched the spot-kick to make it 1-0 to bluebirds. the mainstream press reported no controversy as to the awarding of the penalty.



the baggies were probably the better side on the day and wouldn't have deserved to lose this one. luckily, gianni zuiverloon again provided the heroics by scoring in stoppage-time just before the end of the first half. graham dorrans made the final pass on a move that had started with a scott carson free kick and ended with the young dutch full-back burying the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the cardiff city goal.

i've been contending all year that i don't think we've seen this particular baggies team play up to their real potential - even with the big victories over middlesbrough, watford and sheffield wedneday - and now, i'm not sure that we're really going to get to see a team featuring the likes of roman bednar, ishmael miller, chris brunt, robert koren, simon cox or graham dorrans at their best until next year. although, there is still the possibility of something in the way of cup glory that might produce itself at some point, for the time being, the primary goal is to finish out this season (and all its competitions) on the same note that we started. this is the part of the season where management needs to be at its sharpest and deal with the job at its most desperate.



this was a good point won. cardiff are always a tough side at home and the albion's many draws with blue-birds over the years will attest to this.

in all likelihood - and once these next two or three matches are behind them - the albion will start to find things a little easier, and might even have a full team out by then.

it sounded as if the baggies should have won this one and were superior in all statistical areas. more importantly, the albion had three chances - the best falling for chris wood in the second-half - where they could (and probably should) have scored the winner.

WBA 2-0 Scunthorpe United

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who would have imagined, while perusing the fixtures list at the beginning of this year's league competition, that what may be west brom's three or four most vital wins of the season would come against sheffield united, blackpool, plymouth argyle and scunthorpe?

with derby county surprising newcastle united 3-0 on the night, the albion have gone back into first place, are on a seven game unbeaten run and are poised to advance to the quarter-finals of the FA cup. but none of this has come cheaply.

the baggies came into this one needing a largely overhauled starting line-up due to a couple of key short-term injuries, as well as jerome thomas' beginning a four-match suspension which came by virtue of his second straight red-card of the season issued in injury-time against plymouth.

the incident has since escalated as the FA have charged both the albion and argyle with not adequately controlling their players, and thomas may face an extended suspension on a seperate charge of "violent conduct", also brought against him personally by the FA. that's the story as best as i can glean from the mainstream news at the moment.

scunnie have a recent history of having players sent off themselves in this fixture. the corresponding match in december - which saw the iron playing well and having equalized early in the second-half, only to see their discipline implode and finish the match with 9-men and on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline.

while they only had one player sent off in this one, it wasn't the turning point that it served in the previous encounter and - as with the last two matches for the albion - this was a scrappy little game with few chances made and fewer taken.



roman bednar is back at his absolute best and scored just on 13 minutes to give the match what would be a long-standing 1-0 scoreline. truth to tell, when the baggies get themselves one goal up in a low-scoring game it's always a nervy affair. for a team that have won 17 matches to date there are a surprisingly low number of 1-0 wins. in fact, there are just two of them: the first against nottingham forest back in august and last weekend's win at plymouth. so you can see why defending a one-goal lead over 77 minutes might seem an anxious proposition for any baggies supporter?!?

di matteo wasted no time in giving the latest addition to the team a start in the likes of teenage striker, frank nouble, who has just come on loan from west ham, and is probably - given his level of talent - a short term deal that the gaffer has made to fill some essential gaps at a critical time of the season. having acquitted himself adequately over the course of the match, he in turn came off for the other new boy, andy slory.

with the gaffer's tactical substitutions in the blackpool match having unluckily backfired on him and ishmael miller picking up an ankle injury which will push his recovery back two or three weeks, di matteo had little choice but to look out a couple of loan deals in order to soldier on.



one thing that has to be credited to roberto di matteo this year is the belief he has instilled in the entire squad, and the ability to get players to perform and make functional, practical contributions at critical moments. today it was gianni zuiverloon who kicked in with a goal that sealed the victory when the match looked like it might be in danger of ending with everyone on level-terms. zuiverloon - and not for the first time this season - showed why he one day might be a truly great name in english football.

i am somewhat perplexed by a player like zuiverloon. like his team-mate, marek cech, he possesses skills more associated with a winger or mid-fielder than that of a fullback. however, the albion have - and since the days of bobby robson and don howe - always had a tradition of adventurous and offensively minded fullbacks capable of chipping in goals when needed. while cech has been used out of position and is a very adaptable player in that sense, zuiverloon has (save for a few minutes as a sub in the blackpool match) thus far exclusively played from the right-back position. with recent injuries and jerome thomas' suspension to deal with, di matteo might finally find a different starting role for the young dutch fullback.

as the albion now prepare to kick on and play away to reading this weekend for a place in the quarter-finals of the FA cup, the gaffer is going to have to show off his management skills to maximum effect. besides the immediate injury issues, it has been clear that graham dorrans and chris brunt are beginning to show signs of wear and at least one of them is going to have sit out a game - and sooner rather than later! while the loss of either of these key players is a serious adjustment - and even on half steam both dorrans and brunt are capable of making things happen and producing goals. they have also been the two penalty takers this year.

i'd hope to see brunt start with an eye to making a tactical substitution (and depending on the score-line) in the second-half to give him a rest. i would start robert koren in place of dorrans, and simon cox as the attacking mid-fielder or deep striker. and in the event of a penalty just hope that a taker emerges. still, it's quite possible that both dorrans and brunt will be rested for this match - they both certainly need it; and i can never quite guess when the gaffer is going to use simon cox.

Scunthorpe United 1-3 WBA

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this was a little better stuff from the baggies - and especially from luke moore, who is looking increasingly a threat to come out of the slump that has plagued him most of the season. chris brunt, while still not looking the dangerous scorer he has for most of the season, put in an intelligent performance; and gianni zuiverloon showed again that he can be a real threat going forward.

however, the old habit of winning was greatly aided by the iron going on a self-destructive run of bookings that saw the team ultimately reduced to 9-men and conceding two penalties after having drawn level only 50 seconds into what looked might become a competitive second-half.

this was also the match where i realized that earlier decisions by roberto di matteo as to the starting team were much more measured, and his intentions as a tactician were more firmly established than i had first thought. while i think i probably should have realized it against cardiff or QPR, that in continually starting luke moore in a forward pairing with simon cox the gaffer was making plain display of what kind of attack he is trying to establish. he has deliberately taken a more direct approach, and must be planning a kind of utility role for roman bednar when a change of tactics is needed.

indeed, di matteo has favoured young chris wood as his primary substitute and is looking for the kind of midfield attack that will narrow the width at the front and try to play balls in behind the opposing back four. this is a style that suits both moore and cox and doesn't allow for a player like bednar to really get involved in the match. however, being capable of everything from the ridiculous to the sublime, bednar would be a good gamble late in the day and desperately needing something out of the ordinary.

the albion spark-plug in this match was undoubtedly graham dorrans, who seems to find his scoring touch away from the hawthorns. the young scottish international took advantage of a clear scoring opportunity in the 19th minute to put the baggies ahead.

after equalizing through a deflected then flicked on ball in the first minute of the second-half united's discipline disintegrated totally on a pair of penalties. dorrans was brought down by scunnie defender, rob jones, making a direct run into the box down the right flack. joe murphy the goalkeeper was booked for mockingly applauding the penalty decision, and dorrans - now the albion penalty taker since chris brunt's injury of last month - skillfully put the ball out of reach to the keeper's left for his second of the game.



already down to ten men through the acquisition of a second yellow-card by andrew wright in the 61st minute, scunthorpe gave up a second penalty, as well as having midfielder grant mccann sent off for his immediate, angry and animated dissent. while it wasn't a bad effort this time by dorrans, murphy rose to the occasion and anticipated the shot correctly.

finally, gianni zuiverloon scored through the intelligent play of chris brunt down the right-wing, with the northern ireland international spotting the dutchman's run and open space to set up the shot for zuiverloon's second goal of the season.

the baggies look set to follow a pattern on the season and their performance has been consistent and at times ruthless. while this is true, i don't think that we've really seen this team play at its absolute best; and that may not have been necessary until now with the next two league games coming up representing the most important challenges yet this season. if the baggies can rise to the occasion and take maximum points from forest and newcastle they will be ideally poised to challenge for the championship title. indeed, if they manage this, i have no doubt that they will actually win the title. the collective results of these next two league matches will determine just about everything else as far as the final table positions go. i hope they've been saving their best stuff for this pair of games.

also, as a fan of the FA Cup i'm hoping that we can get a strong enough team on the pitch to beat huddersfield and can get something going this year. i would dearly love to see a good cup run. ironically, i think it's probably good for confidence in a situation like this, and not worth ignoring to make the league your sole concern, obsession and irritation. it can keep a team - and certain players - playing and winning games in a prestigious competition without the pressure of the league to contend with. the 07-08 team that won the division and made the semi-final was a model albion team and it's just been too long since a club from england's penultimate division - whatever it happens to be called at the time - has won the competition. although, i know that's a bigger ask these days than it once was. but still, there should always be the dream.

WBA 5-0 Watford F.C.

i was really worried about this one after seeing watford absolutely demolish sheffield wednesday by a score of 4-1 on TV last friday. it was really good football. but if you want to come to the hawthorns and try to play football at this level against the albion you're going to get beat 9 times out of 10.

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as crystal palace and - to a lesser extent - swansea city showed, the only way to really beat this baggies team in the championship is by employing the most negative tactics... 10 men behind the ball and a single striker looking for counter-attack opportunities. but playing football? you probably aren't going to win.

so it was as the baggies pasted watford 5-0 at the hawthorns last saturday.


i don't think too many albion fans would have much to criticize from this performance. it was another clean-sheet for scott carson, five goals all coming by different sources, and a victory achieved largely without chris brunt, who came on for only the last 25 minutes and was relatively inconsequential to the outcome of the match.




there were several factors about this match which will make it seem a like a crucial turning point in the season if the baggies do well in the next few games, and ultimately, gain promotion on the year. first off, this was a tight and well executed performance throughout. i had to listen to the match on the ALBION RADIO, and the infrequency with which the fullbacks were mentioned in the commentary is one indication of very solid work at the back. i only remember meite's name coming up twice in the whole broadcast, for example, and that's always a good sign for a defender.

while not improving his overall performance - and still looking kind of out of it - luke moore returned to doing a strikers' job, scoring in the 48th minute to end a drought for the team's forwards that has lasted since september 19th. gianni zuiverloon netted his first goal for the club, and simon cox scored perhaps the best of the goal of the game to open his league goals account for the albion and looks to have earned a place in the starting team.



i hope the baggies have learned their lessons over the first third of the season, as the upcoming away match at leicester city is possibly the toughest prospect that the club have had to face all season. i saw city play QPR on TV last week and on their day they are probably the most all-around solid side in the division. leicester are excellent at the back - having the second best defensive record in the league - and although they play with less possession than other teams might, they know how to take advantage of their opportunities when they come.

the last time that west brom had a big win, they followed up with a string of poor performances which started at home in a 0-1 loss to crystal palace. they can't afford another run of poor results at this point of the season. if the albion can continue with last week's form, then they can beat leicester city at home. it's as simple as that. but, this is a definite case where the defensive game is going to have to be solid, as i can't see this leicester side allowing the baggies' forwards as much space, time or opportunity as they had last saturday.