Tour of the Midlands and Black Country Derby

travelling from abroad to get to the first ever PREMIER LEAGUE black country derby provided some of the most ridiculous logistics and implementation of contingencies that i have ever encountered in making plans to travel and attend any function, anywhere and at any time in my life. but in the end... finally worth it, i think.

besides coming back for the baggies' derby with their biggest rivals, i also wanted to squeeze in a couple of additional matches to make up for the football i had missed at christmas.

first off, the match had been scheduled for the 18th of december, but - like almost all other fixtures in england that day - ran afoul of the unexpectedly bad weather. with FA CUP games still to be replayed, the match was initially rescheduled for february 22nd. however, we were all well aware that the west midlands police were going to request that the match be moved to a noon kick-off over the cup's 5th round weekend should both the baggies and wolves get knocked out of the competition prior to this. at the time of rescheduling, however, both teams were still involved.

the albion were promptly knocked out by their cup nemesis reading, who put them out of the competition both this year and last, while wolves survived through a draw with doncaster rovers. at this point, it was a matter of waiting for the results of the 4th round replays and subsequent draw for round five before making any definite travel plans.



i was already taking no chances and knew i had to be in the midlands - and within an hour of birmingham - if indeed the black country derby was going to be played on the saturday. in light of this, i planned a trip to stoke for port vale's friday night home game with bradford city. this would leave me well enough situated with enough time to get to the hawthorns for a noon kick-off should wolves lose their replay with doncaster. they did not.

i was now left waiting on the result from wolves 5th round home fixture with stoke city.

in the meantime, i had changed my plans to travel to stoke on the friday in favour of a night game at leicester with bristol city as the visitors.

wolves were then knocked out of the cup in a 1-0 loss to stoke city at the molineux. knowing that the west midlands police would take quick steps to change the date, i had to wait for the outcome of the cup draws set to be played on the 19th.

birmingham city, after their 3-2 win over coventry, were drawn in a home fixture against sheffield wednesday. i now knew that the west brom/wolves game wouldn't be moved to the saturday with a cup game at st. andrews on the same day.

i was now free to book my ticket with a departure date that would see me in london on the 16th and departing on the 23rd. this would mean travelling to the leicester on friday. i would then go to birmingham, anyway, for the FA CUP game at blues and then return for baggies/wolves match on the last night of my trip. but i had not figured on the fact that they might move the match to a sunday. which, of course, is what they did.

all the better! i was at the walkers stadium on friday, st. andrews on saturday - and after spending the night in birmingham, i was at the hawthorns, as planned, for a noon kick-off on the 20th of february.

Leicster City F.C. 2-1 Bristol City F.C.

i found leicester a very pleasant experience with a surprising gate of 29,000 on a friday night. while i have a suspicion that there are more than a few fair-weather fans who were there in support of the team's current success, i had not realized how big a club leicester city really is. in my short time in the city i encountered an extensive and serene university campus, a big modern rugby stadium, a large park named in honour of nelson mandela and an obviously lively downtown club scene - and most of this on my walk to the match from the hotel.

of course, among other players of note, i got a chance to see david james in goal for bristol city.

from the point of view of the neutral, this was a terrific match. after an early leicester goal by yakubu and bristol city equalizer, the bulk of the matched was played poised on a 1-1 scoreline. bristol city played a really top notch game, keeping it tight with a sound defensive formation and then exerting a high tempo attack with a really good spell of possession late on. tactically, and as the away team, they went for the win at the right time. the home team responded, though, with some late defending to preserve at least a draw, before substitute, martin waghorn, scored the winner in injury time. an excellent evening's entertainment and another positive advert for CHAMPIONSHIP football.

Birmingham City F.C. 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

my first trip to blues was a bit of a disappointment. the fans of our local rivals are a rough and barbaric inner-city cousin to the evidently more cultured black country folk from up the road. i felt uncomfortable in supporting blues (something i wouldn't usually do), but in light of it not being a league match and birmingham city being the club from whom i had purchased my ticket, i felt obliged to exchange my navy for royal blue - just for a few hours, anyway.

while i did consider the initial option of purchasing my ticket from sheffield wednesday, i wouldn't travel with visiting supporters other than the albion (or brentford, for whom i have a soft spot) under any circumstance whatsoever. even travelling with the baggies can be a bit rowdy for my liking, and the visiting supporters section is never the best place to watch the match from.



i also felt a bit confined as i had a bored steward sitting at the end of the adjoining block of seats, so i refrained from taking my usual photo of the kick-off.

there was an unfriendly feeling about the place. from the ridiculously cramped little club shop, or a line-up for the toilet at half-time, to the stadium's dreary highway landscape surrounding, it was all curiously unwelcoming. it certainly ai' the hawthorns!!! while i have always admired blues website for its extensive media content and quality of its online ticket service, i found the place itself bleak and cold.

i was seated, however, next to a charming middle-aged woman who was an obviously enthusiatic blues supporter. we commented on the impressive display of the sheffield wednesday supporters. she pointed out a character known as "mr. tango", who was, of course some ridiculously over-weight yorkshireman invariably wearing no shirt and boldly leading the rowdy but good natured wednesday support in song, dance and general party spirit.

"brilliant. isn't he?" she asked rhetorically.

i was most uncomfortable with her friendly attentions and having to feign any real feelings for blues.

"it's nice to have an early goal for once," she beamed following the home side's opener in the first few minutes.

"yes," i said, nodding my head in an attempt to display my support.

i have to give her credit. she was the best of sports fans, acknowledging a good tackle on the part of the owls as well as the better efforts of her obviously beloved blues. she would unconcsiously clutch at my shoulder as a birmingham city break would develop or a long range shot would go whistling over the wednesday goal.

"megson's doin' 'is nut," she pointed out in regards to the owls' new manager.

sure enough, sitting on the opposite side of the field from the dugouts you could hear him loud and clear screaming at this players in utter frustration. he was indeed "doin' 'is nut".



while blues scored early on through new signing, obafemi martins, and eventually won the match 3-0, i was most impressed by the travelling wednesday support. they outsang, outdanced and outchanted the home supporters all day long, and numbering 5,000 in a gate which only saw a 14,000 total, they constituted no mean presence. even after going 3-nil down they just kept jumping up and down and singing:

always look on the bright side of life,
da-doo da-doo da-do da-doo

it was absolutely brilliant and i can only hope that baggies support would be so good if ever faced with the generally dire situation that sheffield wednesday find themselves in at the moment - and besides not playing very good football on the day.

the coolest thing about going to blues was that i got to see kevin phillips play, as he came on as substitute at the beginning of the second half. while the game was already over, i'm happy to have merely seen him run around the pitch a bit, perpetually strolling back from an offside position and helping to kill the game off for birmingham city as they continue their good cup form this year. here was a blues players i was happy to cheer for and would've liked to see score.

i was happy enough to hear the final whistle and caught a taxi back to new street station, where i picked up my bags from the left luggage service and walked across the street to the COMFORT INN.

WBA 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

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i was up at 7.30 the next morning and aiming to catch a local train to the hawthorns at 10.30. i checked out of the hotel and again left my travelling bag and laptop at the left luggage service. with plenty of time to get there i meandered over to snow hill station and had a smoke before embarking for the trains.

as soon as i caught sight of the stadium i knew i was back in familiar territory. i smiled inwardly at the sense of belonging i experienced as the strangeness and cold feeling from having been at blues the day before dropped away. i was happy and confident of an albion victory. i had arrived.



i wasn't sure what to expect. i certainly hadn't seen any wolves supporters around the city centre or anywhere on the trains, and wasn't surprised to see that the gates for the visitors entrance at the smethwick end of the ground were closed and an unusually high police presence controlling the immediate area. without too much inspection or scrutiny of the situation i figured i'd walk round the long way and come in through the east stand parking lot.

the club shop was lively with action, there was a qeue at the ticket office, and a monstrous stretch limo was parked in front of reception. with the fact of a first ever PREMIER LEAGUE black country derby, both baggies and wolves desperately needing a result and roy hodgson making his debut in charge of west brom, it was certainly an auspicious and historic occassion.

it was evident, even without youssouf mulumbu in the side, that hodgson had done some tightening up of the back four and reset out how the midfield was going to defend. still, it was evident to most of us that gonzalo jara was still sitting way too far infield, allowing too much space for wolves' left-winger, matt jarvis, to go forward in.

unfortunately, it just wasn't one of the classics that we'll be watching on video for years to come. both teams were cautious, given the occassion and the critical need for league points in an approaching relegation battle. the baggies first-half performance was again disjointed and uneven due to the lack of youssouf mulumbu in central midfield, but the baggies did produce a couple of good opportunites that required timely reactions from wolves goalie, wayne hennessy. jonas olsson came close on a chris brunt corner-kick but his effort was saved. paul scharner then put in a header that curled just wide of the visitors goal. all in all, it was wolves defenders who had the better of the first 20 minutes or so.



the old-gold went ahead, scoring through a free-kick some three or four yards outside the albion penalty area. the move was simplicity itself and taken straight from training ground routines on set-pieces. with two wolves players hanging over the ball and the baggies forming up a wall, jostling for good defensive positions and picking up their marks inside the box, the ball was played square to midfielder jamie o'hara who had peeled off the back of the wolves front line and moved out of the box to a high central position some 20-25 yards out.

it was a clever move and and o'hara's curling shot beat albion keeper, boaz myhill, and nestled firmly in the top right-hand corner. there wasn't much that could be done about it, and myhill was caught holding only a slightly higher position than would have been necessary to make the save. given the height and distance of the shot, however, questioning the welsh number two's positioning is speculative at best.

while the visitors section of the smethwick went wild, the rest of us groaned at a circumstance with which we are all too familiar. the baggies were a goal down with only about 5 minutes of the first-half left to play.

the albion thoroughly dominated the second-half but not before matt jarvis - who had the beating of gonzalo jara all day - came close to putting the old-gold up 2-0 when a miscued header by a back-tracking paul scharner fell perfectly for the wolves winger to score their second five minutes in to the second period. however, boaz myhill's quick reacton in coming out to cover the angles forced jarvis' shot wide of the albion goal.

the baggies then again came close as jonas olsson beat wayne hennessy only to see his effort cleared off the line by matt jarvis, making up for his miss from a few minutes earlier. wolves, it seemed, were riding their luck a bit and depended on the good form of their welsh international goalie.



after carlos vela was brought on, the baggies upped the tempo and kept attacking the stout wolves defence. the mexican winger forced hennessy into a top-notch save as his low, hard blast at goal deflected off the back of wolves defender, karl henry, which could have easily seen the baggies draw level. the move finally ended with an over-cooked cross from albion striker, marc-antoine fortune. time was just beginning to slip away with less than 15 minutes normal time left on the clock.

what looked to be the baggies' best chance of the match went begging when fortune found himself wrong-footed as the ball ran past him directly in front of a gaping wolves' goal. as the 90 minute mark approached, some of the less optimistic baggies supporters started to make their way from the ground. it just did not appear to be albion's day.

however, and with 4 minutes injury time to be played, the baggies kept pressing and finally equalized in dramatic fashion with almost 92 minutes gone on the clock. steven reid moved the ball forward into space and this helped to fashion a 12 yard effort from midfielder james morrison. the initial shot was saved but bobbled by hennessy and carlos vela picked up the rebound to equalize in the most dramatic of fashions.

the hawthorns went wild. the day was saved. i wondered why anybody leaves a football match with only a 1 goal difference before the final whistle, as i thought of the baggies support that had made an early exit only to miss the high drama at game's end.

there are some draws that feel like a loss and some that feel like a win. this one felt a bit like a win and everybody save the wolves supporters were definitely buoyed by the baggies earning a late draw in a match they might just as easily have won.



even at this early stage of his tenure, roy hodgson's influence could already be felt in the way that the baggies approached this game, and there will no doubt be several essential changes he will make in regards to the starting squad over the next few weeks. for his first match in charge, hodgson did ok.

while it wasn't the high that one gets from a definitive win, i was happy with the result and returned to the west country feeling fine. my short tour of the midlands had found its satisfying end.

Leicester City F.C. 1-4 WBA

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as the long-time and dominant formation of 4-4-2 begins to give way to other increasingly popular setups based around the use of a single striker and extra defensive midfielders, one has to wonder: what will happen to the deep-lying, predatory striker?

west bromwich albion's simon cox is a case in point in regards to this current dilemma. despite having an absolutely frightening goals-to-games ratio and having shown over and over that he is a truly talented finisher who can score goals at any level, he can't get a start in the first team. this isn't because he is in competition with another "in-form" player, or that he's going through a rough patch of form himself. it's because he's only 5' 11", not particularly pacey and - for all intents and purposes - the position he plays doesn't actually exist within the current frame-work of the single-striker setup now favoured by the baggies' coaching and management staff.

while he has found success in the early cup competitions, it looks like his appearances in the league will be limited to that of an "impact" player, and he will only see playing time as a late substitution when the team is in desperate need of a goal.



with di matteo remaining committed to the 4-5-1 formation in this year's domestic cup competitions as well, simon cox has been pushed back and is forced to play from a central midfield position. what this really means is that his game will ultimately have to expand, as he will have further to come forward in attack and will be required to track back quickly on a loss of possession and take up a strictly defined defensive position in the central midfield. a quicker player in a similar circumstance might find himself transformed into a winger.

however you look at it, the style of attacking football pioneered by the hungarians with ferenc puskas in the 1950s, refined by the brazilians with pele during the 1960s and 70s, and - regardless of whatever other changes have occured within the science of football - has remained a standard model for how strikers would play for the next 50-60 years, seems like it may have run its course.

soon enough, less than ten years perhaps, strikerless formations (4-6-0) with wingers as the main attacking players will be as common as 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 are today.

while the baggies won this match in decisive fashion, the 4-1 scoreline was still a bit flattering to the team on the day, as well as testament to the ability of simon cox to score goals.

the baggies started poorly but took the lead on cox' first goal of the game, which was really against the run of play. it was a perfect example of pure predatory instinct, an ability to read the play and demonstrated the job of a deep lying striker. roman bednar, taking a cross in the box from giles barnes on the right wing, turned and shot, only for the ball to be scuffed away off a leicester defender. cox was positioned perfectly, took control and pushed the ball on a yard or two before chipping the leicester keeper, conrad logan.



west brom may not have deserved it, but went in 1-0 up at half-time thanks to the goal scoring insticts of simon cox.

the baggies gave up an unfortunate own goal through nicky shorey soon after the restart, and it was one of those things that you just can't do anything about or hold anyone to blame for. with a leicester attack producing a cross into the albion box from the right-wing, the baggies' left back stuck his leg out to make the block - as he well and rightly should do - but unfortunately didn't get enough of the ball and it was redirected from well out past a rooted and helpless boaz myhill.

the baggies went on to take control of this one just as surely as the foxes had let it go. in an incident that quite remarkably resembled his goal at old trafford, west brom winger, somen tchoyi once again took advantage of a ball, in this instance, bobbled by conrad logan and had only to knock home into an open net to put the baggies back in the lead.

steven reid scored with a header on 79 minutes to put the game beyond doubt, before simon cox' last minute stunner. the young albion striker, a full 25 yards from goal and frantically waving his team-mates out of the way, buried the ball in the top left corner of logan's net, producing a goal of world class quality worthy of any striker who has ever worn the blue-and-white stripes. you simply don't score goals any better than this one.



in another era, his goals-to-game ratio and obvious talent would have pretty much demanded that a player like cox would have a place in the starting XI. but roberto di matteo, like many of his contemporaries has found success with the 4-5-1 formation for the better part of a year now, and cox has been limited to cup games and was used on the wing a few times towards the end of last season.

he has been on the bench every game i can remember so far this year, suggesting that he would be of some use if the baggies were chasing a game and needed to make use of an extra attacker. so far, the need hasn't arisen except for a few minutes against chelsea on opening day.

still, the west brom sharp-shooter has said that he will bide his time and wait for a starting call-up in the first team. but then, what else is he going to do? with the game going the way it is at the moment, there is diminishing opportunities for pure, predatory strikers these days.

WBA 3-0 Leicester City F.C.

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when these two teams met in the reverse fixture back in the early months of the season, newly promoted leicester city were a surprise form team and - along with newcastle united - were the best footballing side that the baggies had had to play up until that point. west brom won that encounter by a score of 2-1. it was one of their rare single goal victories and one of the toughest matches won.

as the two met this last week at the hawthorns, the albion were now the form team of the division, who may still challenge the mighty toon for the division title, and leicester city are a club that have surprised the critics, over-achieved on the season, and are now desperately clinging onto a place in the playoffs despite a recent run of poor form.

whatever happens, both teams can be proud of their accomplishments this season, and both have been a real credit to english league football. leicester city for bouncing back from the curse of having tried to compete in the premier-league then suffering the increasingly frequent double-relegation that follows; and the albion for being the only real "second-division" club left in england - and thus, for both better or worse - a team in a class all their own.



while the 3-0 score-line - provided by the returning james morrison with a contribution of two goals from baggies' stalwart, robert koren - was certainly flattering to the albion, and unfairly diminishes any good football city played on the day, the baggies probably deserved this - but more for the good fortune that becomes part of a winning team's habit and character than anything else.

it is quite normal for football fans (and albion supporters more than most, it's probably fair to say) to hit the panic button at two games lost in succession, or a three or four game winless streak. they tend to imagine the worst and faith in their team is always at its lowest when entertaining a 1-0 lead; but the baggies did, in this match, transcend the usual pressure and pessimism that comes with the possibility of imminent success in professional football.

a month or so back, when west brom lost to bristol city and QPR, then were knocked out of the FA Cup by reading, the online albion message-boards started filling up with negative posts about both the team and gaffer, pointing out how roberto di matteo's MK DONs had suffered a late season loss of form, which cost them missing out on automatic promotion and ultimate loss on penalty kicks in a first-round promotion playoff to swansea city. i even saw posts on the BBC 606 which were direly predicting that that the baggies wouldn't even make the playoffs at this rate, and that they just weren't good enough!



my fellow supporters confound me sometimes, as i have never doubted for a moment that the albion were going to finish second if not win the division outright! you can be as negative as you like, but roberto di matteo has done a brilliant job at managing the resources available to him this season. for the most part - and with rare exception - his team selection, attacking formation, and real-time match tactics - although occasionally baffling to the average punter - have been a superb example of economy and intelligent management. he's developed a good system, has inspired both the team in learning how to win in style, and re-invigorated the spirit of many of its individual constituent components, as well.

i hope, at very least, with the baggies now looking more likely challengers for the division title than playoff candidates, that the supporters can relax their customary pessimism and really enjoy the last few games of the season, looking expectantly to the day - which is soon to come - when the baggies clinch automatic promotion back to the premier league. because i seriously have my doubts as to how enjoyable that's actually going to be!

QPR 3-1 WBA

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

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



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

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





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



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

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

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



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

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

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

WBA 4-1 Bristol City

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this last week's home match against bristol city has seen simon cox pretty much nail down a starting spot in the team - for the next few weeks, anyway. he was the maker of an own goal on the part of the robins when his shot in the 46th minute came off city defender louis carey after beating goalkeeper dean gerken. this built on first-half goals by jerome thomas just on 3 minutes; and chris brunt's 5th of the season in the 12th minute, to then make the score 3-0. as if that wasn't good enough, the 22-year-old striker then scored in his own right a minute later to put the baggies 4-0 up and bring his own season total to 3 goals in 7 starts.

if this is how he plays at this level of football, and he can keep this kind of form consistently, then he is definitely a player the baggies have been looking for the better part of the last two years. i think we can all be hopeful that he has the potential to make a significant long-term contribution to the albion organization. i'm already thinking about next year and how he'll pair up with ishmael miller!



following saturday's victory, chris brunt stated that he felt that things had started to fall into place, and everyone at the club is tuned in. as we become distanced from the poor results of early october, they thankfully begin to appear as nothing more than a blip in what looks to be shaping up into an otherwise successful season, and confirming brunt's current assessment. perhaps the albion are coming closer to living up to the potential that the present team is capable of?

while luke moore has not found his form, bednar has been out both injured and ill and a couple of the senior international players are grumbling about transfers if they don't get regular starts in the first team, everything else seems to be running smoothly and starting to gel.

of course, the baggies are still awaiting the return of their three long-term injuries: ishmael miller, james morrison and neil clement; but even with miller having begun training again, it is unlikely that any of these players will have any impact on or see much playing time this season. so, barring any activity in the january transfer window, the current team is the one that will see out the season.

with that in mind, and striker simon cox looking to have secured a starters spot for the time being, i think it's time that the gaffer thought about giving young chris wood a start. while there is no argument that age and inexperience weigh heavily against the teenage new zealand international, i think he is probably a more suitable choice in regards to style of play than is luke moore in an attack pairing alongside simon cox. indeed, this is one of the few things that i've had to question in di matteo's tactics these last two or three weeks.

there is no doubt that roman bednar would be the first choice to start, but two weeks out to injury and then illness last week saw luke moore start again - and in the last two matches in which cox has also started. while i can imagine the tentative nature of starting both a 17 and 22-year-old in leading the line, moore looks like he needs a few weeks to take the pressure off, put in a few goals for the reserve side and the opportunity to get his head straight.



i was at the hawthorns for young wood's only goal of the season, and as a passage of football, i think was a good indicator (and never mind the goal itself - it was a cracker!) as to what his game is about. he's a big target and has a natural ability to hold the ball up, is good with his back to goal and turning on defenders using his size and speed to make space. as well, he has fairly good pace when running directly at a defender, and he's got a good long range shot. he has consistently been showing good form in the reserves, and considering the current situation with the strikers at the club, it couldn't hurt to start the two youngsters this week.

other than that, the albion just have to remember not to let up, and that this is the championship where anybody can beat anybody else on any given day. the baggies have played well against top-ten competition but have faltered the odd-time and had poor games against teams in the mid-to-bottom half of the table. with the match away to sheffield wednesday this weekend, there is good opportunity to keep things rolling and address this issue.

Leicester City 1-2 WBA

live text replay

i started writing this blog as a therapy for having become obsessed with the albion and as a way to deal with the misery of last season in the premier league. it was a terrible disappointment after the expectation that this team had created through their brilliant footballing performance in winning the championship and reaching the FA cup semi-final the year before.

ron atkinson even said earlier this year that he had thought that the baggies would go up and achieve what would become a long-term consolidation as a premier-league club. their utter failure to do so has had a special frustration from the point of view of the club's overseas supporters, among whom, i have the privilege to count myself.

you see, up until this year it was pointless and impossible for me to subscribe to the ALBION WORLD audio commentary service offered on the club's website. it wasn't so much a technical or regional problem that prevented me the ability to do so, but rather, an ethical consideration. the problem was that the service would only work for WINOWS operating systems. i do not use microsoft products; nor am i a MAC user. i use a regular PC, but several years ago (and after years of using "pirated" WINDOWS operating sytems) i started playing around with several FREE and OPEN-SOURCE operating systems, commonly known as LINUX.

it is possible - and a great many people do this for practical reasons - to have a PC run multiple operating systems. you can have multiple versions of WINDOWS and LINUX variants on a single machine; and for the first few months i ran both WINDOWS 2000 and SLACKWARE LINUX on the same PC. as soon as i had figured out how to do everything in the LINUX environment that i could in WINDOWS, i abandoned microsoft completely. i came to adopt this idea as a philosophical concept. there are many reasons other than the practical consideration of having a faster computer not to use WINDOWS, most of which are, in fact, ethical in nature. but i won't get in to that here and now...

while i am able to pay expensive cable television subscription fees and get a full complement of premier-league games, championship matches were few and far between. in 2007-08, i saw the baggies 4 times: 2 league matches, and the FA Cup quarter and semi-finals. the rest of the season was followed on the BBC live text commentaries. but with the baggies back in the premiership and on weekly TV, i had the greatest hopes for the next season.



after the home fixture with portsmouth last year, and ishmael miller was gone for the season, i knew the albion were in trouble so i started to blog. a great deal of my early blogging had to do with the fact that i was going to "lose" the baggies as they would be back in the championship and limited to 2 or 3 televised matches a year; and as a committed free software user i couldn't justify installing WINDOWS on my computer for any reason!

two things changed drastically this last year though. first, the service that most clubs in the premier and football leagues use for live audio commentary on the internet changed so that it was now compatible with MAC and LINUX operating systems. as well, the football league had made a deal to broadcast 60 championship and league 1 matches on TV this year, and they're all being carried on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA. this means that all west brom matches would now be available to me, either on TV or through the internet as live audio commentary. besides that, i was lucky enough to have been in england this last september and had the most fortunate opportunity to see the baggies play twice at home in the space of four days.

anyway, the point of this rumination is to wonder what i'm doing here anymore? does anybody read me? does it matter? is what i've got to say - besides expressing the woes of trying to follow a team like the albion from overseas - worth the time i put in? can one accurately assess a situation from thousands of miles away and with radio commentary as their main receiving medium?

actually, i'm surprised at how much i'm able to understand about what's going on with the club. i heard two points made by the commentary team on ALBION RADIO prior to the leicester city match that were almost verbatim observations as i had made them in my blog of the previous week reviewing the watford match. it seems that what had been obvious to me had also been obvious to the commentary staff - and worthy enough to mention on the broadcast.



of course, i'm not sure that it would be the same had i not been to the hawthorns in september, or seen the first few matches of the season on TV. there are details that can only be fully received through direct visual information. for example, when i saw the baggies play at the hawthorns it was pretty clear that the left-back, joe mattock, consistently came up very high in attack and was often in danger of being caught out of position. in fact, on the tuesday night match that i attended v doncaster rovers, the albion gave up an early goal precisely as a result of the young full-back's poor positional play. this was a weakness in the team that persisted, was consistent and definitely cost a couple of goals along the way. in the last few games, however, it seems like he's learned his lesson and is keeping his position much better. you need at least an initial visual experience to make a fully informed assessment of a simple situation such as this one.

while life is not perfect, in that i still don't believe in DRM, which is the various intrusive forms of controlling information online so that it can't be downloaded or copied - as is the case with all premier and football league video and audio content - the situation is at least now a reasonable compromise. i have a paid membership account - made through the albion website - which allows me to access any of the live audio streams of premier and football league clubs that have opted in to the PLAYER setup.

still, the question goes unanswered. should i be writing about football if i'm not saying anything different from any other football writers?

i'm not sure. but i will, at least, chronicle this season - and at the end, make an accompanying video as well - as it has become possible for me to keep up with and gather the information needed to do so; and ultimately, i guess, because i can't get the albion out of my head!