WBA 2-0 Southampton F.C.

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the baggies did well in not letting the unfortunate results of the last two games - and the circumstances under which they came to pass - affect their confidence. a couple of last minute defeats can really demoralize a side - especially in the PREMIER LEAGUE - but the baggies, it seems, have been able to handle it.

while one cannot say that there is such a thing as an easy game in the top-flight, it was lucky that the baggies had a fixture that they could reasonably approach in a more workman-like manner than it might be going up against one of the country's bigger sides. west brom certainly didn't need anymore crushing reality checks; just the opportunity to go ahead and win a home fixture that they'd regularly be expected to win anyway.


i don't dislike saints - and they gave me great pleasure as a teenager in becoming one the few 2nd division sides to win an FA CUP, beating manchester united in 1976. but at this point in the club's history, i think that they probably came up a year or two early and they'll need a second run at it; much like the baggies had to do following the 2008-09 season.

while there is no doubt that ricky lambert is a talented striker and saints play a generally attractive style of football, they are light in almost all defensive positions and have had to make use of no less than three goalkeepers so far this season. it is no surprise that they've shipped 14 more goals than they've scored.

after the last two horrific dissapointments - at home to man. city and away to newcastle - which saw the baggies losing both fixtures after deserving at least a point from each, this was an important win and put the baggies back on track. indeed, losing to the toon and city under similar circumstances could very well have knocked belief out of the side, and this was a big test of the team's character and resilience.


in what has become a familiar sight this last few seasons at the hawthorns, the goals came by way of the club's top-scorer of two years ago, peter odemwingie. the nigerian striker set out his intentions fairly early. in the 19th minute - and making a run into a central position from the right wing - odemwingie nearly created a goal, as an off target, left-footed attempt was turned goalwards by a quick thinking zoltan gera who had gotten into a good position in the saints' penalty area. unfortunately, it all happened too fast for any real control and the ball went fizzing over saints' crossbar.

odemwingie came close again with just half-an-hour gone. southampton had a useful spell of possession that saw rickie lambert get a header on target, but the effort was tame and ben foster's astute gathering and distribution of the ball afforded the baggies an opportunity to break on the counter attack.

again, it was odemwingie advancing the ball with shane long and zoltan gera in support. with the saints' back four out of position, the albion striker found adequate space at the top of the 18-yard box to deliver a low, hard shot that just skipped inches wide of paulo gazzaniga's left-hand post.

the nigerian international finally made the breakthrough in the 35th minute. with the baggies starting to exert their superiority in possession, youssouf mulumbu played the ball back for odemwingie whose attempt on goal took just enough of a deflection off saints defender, maya yoshida, to end up in the back of the net. 1-0 to the baggies.


the game might have taken a different turn early in the second-half when jay rodriguez played a looping cross into the albion box that gareth mcauley was unable to clear. the ball eventually fell to rickie lambert whoses skill produced southampton's best opportunity of the match. taking the ball down in a central position near the penalty spot, the saints' striker turned and hit the ball on the half-volley only to see his effort come smacking back off ben foster's crossbar.

the baggies sealed the victory in the 59th minute as shane long broke down the left inside channel. the albion striker held the ball up well before delivering a perfect cross for an onrushing odemwingie to head past gazzaniga in the 6-yard box for the final scoreline.

the baggies showed in this particular match that their success thus far has been no fluke, and that this is a very, very well run club. every year for the past decade or so, the baggies have consistently improved season to season and shown the results of what a top-rate scouting system and good management can produce.

after years of criticism from supporters, chairman jeremy peace can take much of the credit for their current success. it is his faith in the idea that implementing a sound business model would lead to results both on and off the pitch that has served to reinstate the club as a top-level side. in an era when big-spending on big names and managing huge debt has been seen as the key to success, west bromwich albion have bucked the trend, managing their financial resource responsibly, learning from their mistakes and employing creativity and vision in hiring and recruitment.

while the season may be just less than a third of the way through, the baggies can start thinking about more than finishing in the top-half of the table and perhaps start setting their sights on european qualification.

Not Worth the Price of Success

with the reports this morning that the FA is now going to offer dan ashworth the opportunity to take over as the national team's technical director, as a west bromwich albion supporter i have to wonder, is intelligent and prudent management leading to modest success as a PREMIER LEAGUE club worth it?

in these days where supporters want it all and expect it NOW; and where club owners are by-and-large egotistacal gamblers who understand little about the business of football and are willing to incurr huge debts and invest large parts of their personal fortunes in buying their way into the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, i would suggest perhaps "not". at least for the albion, anyway.



when jeremy peace took over as the major share-holder in the company that owns west bromwich albion, you might have asked, "will we ever play in the PREMIER LEAGUE?"

the answer would have been that it was "highly unlikely". however, through the virtues of patience, prudence, hard work and intelligence, the baggies have become a mid-table PREMIER LEAGUE club who might have a shot at winning one of the two major cup competitions sometime in the next 5-10 years. while this took almost a decade to achieve, including the restructuring of west brom's management set-up, and actually running the club at a profit, it seems to have served as little more than a development scheme for improving the resources of the english national team and providing valuable experience towards managing a winning side to the FA CUP and UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE title.



after 18 months in charge of the baggies, head-coach roy hodgson was offered the job with the english national team with no other serious contenders in sight. as a supporter, you can't imagine what a massive disappointment this was. it reminded me how - and as one of the best teams in the country - it seemed like the baggies used to unwittingly develop players for the big cosmopolitan sides, leaving them only extremely limited periods of time in which to achieve any major successes.

for example, after being scouted by the albion while playing for leyton orient, and just one full season with the baggies, laurie cunningham was bought by real madrid. manchester united swooped in and took not only bryan robson, but the player who had ostensibly been brought in to replace him as well, remi moses. as if that isn't bad enough, they also took one of our brightest (and decidedly most flambuoyant) managers in the likes of ron atkinson. man. u. went on to become one of the dominant forces in english football while the albion sank into nearly two decades of mediocrity. this sad state of affairs reached its all-time low with the team being relegated to the 3rd division at twerton park on a spring afternoon in the mid-1980s.

1978-79 was the only time since the mid-1950s that an albion side was good enough to win the league, and they only had the one opportunity.

between 1978 and 1982, west bromwich albion had just missed out on a EUROPEAN CUP semi-final as well as runners-up spot in the league by a single goal in each competition respectively. they also lost two FA CUP semi-finals in the space of 4 years. barring a play-off win that took them back into the first division (now called the FOOTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP) in 1993, there would be no estimable success for the albion again until jeremy peace took over the club as a full-time venture.



mr. peace is not the typical businessman turned football chairman. first and foremost, he does not have a large enough personal worth to invest in the club that it would make any difference, and is therefore forced to either seek outside investment or run the club at a profit. this is a fact that is not always clearly understood by those among the albion supporters who largely characterize him as a tight-fisted and miserly so-and-so. of course, he would be much more immediately popular if he sent the club into unsustainable debt and got arrested for money-laundering, but all his years in investment banking (among other things) taught him to be far too responsible about business to win popularity contests. while a personal fortune of £40 million might seem a lot of money, in top-flight football it would only buy you one andy carroll, a reserve team goalie and a couple of aging impact players before going broke.

football has become ruthless and it seems that when you create something of worth - regardless of what it cost or the time it took - it becomes all the more expensive to hang onto. and no matter what you think of him, jeremy peace has created something worth hanging onto.

Confusion at the Hawthorns

WBA 2-3 Arsenal F.C.

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i thought i had all summer to write the report on this game - but i really should have known better. especially with roy hodgson having taken the england job.

while i am hugely proud to be english, and think there is much to be admired about this country, when it comes to football i am not at all patriotic. the structure and philosophy of the national team has little to capture the imagination of anyone but the most jingoistic clown; and the refusal to look beyond the top six teams for players from which to make up the team selection reflects the unrealistic sense of expectation that the side generates within the ranks of their supporters.

the ridiculous pressure that the public puts on the situation only makes it worse and their most exciting footballing moments of the last twenty years have all been emotionally draining losses in major tournaments. now they have taken my club's manager, i have been alienated even further and you can add "resentment" to the list of feelings i have towards the english national team. for my money, france has always been a much more compelling side to follow. they have given me the most consistently exciting and memorable moments of international football (as well as some of the most controversial and shameful ones as well) that i have yet experienced, and you can bet that i will be cheering for them to wallop the english at the upcoming EUROS.

with this being the week that the nation celebrates the queen's diamond jubilee, i am reminded that i am a staunch republican and that unlike almost any country i can think of, one of the great things about being english is the right to exercise one's freedom not to be bloody ENGLISH.

i can appreciate the difficulty that jeremy peace and co. have in replacing a figure like hodgson; but in a week that has seen brendan rodgers take over at liverpool, roberto martinez decide to stay at wigan, paul lambert going to aston villa and chris hughton no longer a consideration (and as of this morning, linked to the manager's job at norwich city), the situation is beginning to look more than a little desperate.

claudio rainieri emerged as the first choice candidate and was expected to take the job. however, he has now gone to monaco, and ralf ragnick - who subsequently looked set to take over at the hawthorns - is now being linked to the vacancy with the belgian national side. with the appointment of a manager now overdue, the pool of top-flight candidates is quickly drying up.

the problem isn't only replacing the manager. there are contracts that need to be signed and the baggies are in danger of losing the spine of the team if they don't act quickly on this front.

personally, i have always liked ian holloway, but am quick to acknowledge that he is not a manager in the west bromwich albion style, so is probably not appropriate for consideration. i would be happy with gus poyet, chris powell or michael appleton; all of whom are managers who would fit in well with the structure at west brom. although, at this point, most supporters would expect a higher profile appointment of someone who has more experience in PREMIER LEAGUE football.

baggies fans have now been frustrated since the last day of the season when the team lost a match that they should have won. little did any of us realize how that frustration would carry over into the off season.

it was a strange way for the gaffer to make his exit, and none of us could have imagined how much of a reflection of things to come it would be. west brom is known for being a really well run club, and their system of recruitment and personnel management is second to none. however, at the moment, the care and diligence that is employed in running the club - both on and off the field - is working against them. in much the same way that goalie, marton fulop, contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against arsenal, the measured and careful selection process for which the club is known has created a situation that just gets more desperate, and becomes more difficult by the day.

A Trio of Victories!!!

WBA 1-0 Chelsea F.C.

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i left for england on the evening of february the 12th. the baggies had demolished wolves at the molineux (1-5) earlier in the day and i knew that this would go a long way towards banishing the ugly atmosphere that has been present at the hawthorns since the baggies' home loss to wigan on the 10th of december.

barring a series of unlikely disasters there will indeed be an unprecedented third consecutive season of PREMIER LEAGUE football at the hawthorns. of course, this brings up concerns over next year's goals and expectations; but for the moment, i'm just going to enjoy the glory and be grateful for the fact that my last visit of the season was a 4-0 victory over sunderland and the first home win since november 19th.

it has taken a decade to achieve, but i hope that chairman, jeremy peace, feels at least some vindication for his oft-criticized financial practices at the club. mr. peace has always understood that the organization needs to be balanced, and that incremental improvements over a long period of time are the only way that a club of the size and resource of west bromwich albion is going to get anywhere in terms of establishing itself as a top-flight side. i will countenance no more supporter criticism as to the chairman's perceived lack of ambition - it's simply not true.





personally, i think jeremy peace is a brilliant chairman, and one of the few people who's figured out a way to find long term success within the top 25 teams in the country. that is, when the baggies have been relegated, the set-up has been in place to keep most of the important players at the club and ensures that they can challenge for promotion. likewise, each time the albion have gone into a new season in the top-flight, it has always been an improved side on the previous campaign. i guarantee that jeremy peace has the greatest of ambitions for west bromwich albion football club. but in a culture where expectations have to be met instantly, the qualities of patience, prudence, careful management and intelligence are more vice than virtue.

jeremy peace talks to BBC Late Kick-Off (March 2010)

WBA 4-0 Sunderland A.F.C.

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in yet another season of exorcizing ghosts of top-flight fixtures past, the baggies have won three games on the spin for what is only the second time as a PREMIER LEAGUE side. more importantly, they beat chelsea - one of the biggest teams in the country - for the first time in 32 years.

the most significant thing about the baggies current string of results is that they've done it largely without chris brunt and shane long - perhaps their two best players.

however, peter odemwingie has found goal-scoring form where most pundits believed he wouldn't. marc-antoine fortune is unrecognisable to the player who was originally brought in as an emergency loan replacement for ishmael miller and ended up at celtic for the 2010-11 season before returning to the hawthorns. the french striker had recently spent some time on loan at doncaster rovers and has returned to B71 looking the very model of the modern centre-forward - a player transformed.





after a shaky start to the seaon, james morrison has been brilliant in his role as attacking mid-fielder; and last minute january signing, keith andrews, has been a revelation partnering youssouf mulumbu in the holding mid-field position and has scored goals against both wolves and sunderland.

the baggies have also looked good defensively as of late. two clean sheets back-to-back and 225 minutes of football (and counting) without having conceded a goal. the centre-halves have been outstanding. jonas olsson and gareth mcauley might be the best pair of defenders to ever play in a west brom jersey. certainly they are the best centre-halves since the days of john wile and alistair robertson, and both have added important goals to their heroic shot blocking and fearless tackling. ben foster hasn't seemed like he's actually had a lot to do in these few games, but has come up big when needed and his quick distribution of the ball has led directly to scoring opportunities and goals.

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. 1-5 WBA

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black country derbies are always a bit of a drag for me. if i'm here in toronto, i am required to get up a 6 AM to catch what is usually a noon kick-off on the sunday; and if i'm in england, i have to travel to birmingham on the day before and take a hotel room for the night. last year i went to st. andrews to watch blues play sheffield wedneday in an FA CUP replay as a way of killing time on the eve of the big match; and this last october i went to watch walsall play preston in the league.

as i was travelling to england that night, waking up at 6 AM was less of a chore than usual and worth the effort ten times over.

this was quite an unbelievable game of football and one that the baggies really needed to win in order to change the mood at the hawthorns. it may have been the most important match of the current campaign; we will only know once the season is over. but just as wolves used their home victory over west brom last year as a spring-board to their successful run for survival, the baggies used this away win as a way to go back to the hawthorns with momentum and confidence and get the home support behind them as they begin the push for a mid-table finish.





it was also important to bring the home faithful onside and get them behind the manager. roy hodgson has been coming under a certain amount of attack in various online forums since the baggies loss to wigan kicked off a string of poor results at home. there has been criticism of everything from his age to his "negative" footballing tactics. these same tactics have come to be an important part of the baggies current form and the gaffer now looks like a footballing genius. his sometimes rigid defensive formations have become integral to how the baggies play - and will need to keep playing, in order to finish with the kind of season we had all hoped for (and perhaps expected) since the outset of the campaign.

A Satisfying End

Newcastle Utd F.C. 3-3 WBA

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

WBA 1-0 Everton F.C.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

followed by a quick round of laughter.

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

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



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

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

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



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

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