The Grandest of Mediocrity

Norwich City F.C. 4-0 WBA

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this was, without a doubt, the worst performance of the season by west brom. steve clarke (quite rightly) wanted to have a look at what he's got in terms of players who haven't seen much time in the squad this year - most notably markus rosenberg - and being free to experiment, he used his side's safe position in the table as an opportunity to have a look at some different attacking formations.

what had been a resounding success away to southampton a few weeks ago was an unmitigated failure on this visit to carrow road. fair enough. the gaffer could see this and made the appropriate adjustments going into the second-half. with his side still only down one-nil to kevin snodgrass' early goal, the baggies got back in the game and looked the better side for the first few minutes after the restart. that's when tragedy struck and put getting a result beyond the baggies on the day.


ben foster, coming well off his line in trying to make what would otherwise have been a routine clearance, missed the ball altogether and allowed grant holt to walk it into an open net to put city up by two goals.

in foster's defence, he may have been distracted by jonas olsson's clumsy backtracking, as his centre-half appeared to be moving into a position that threatened to close down the goalie's clearance. whoever is to blame for the amateurish mistake, it knocked the heart out of the albion. unlike the two previous matches - both good performances at the attacking end, if not the best defensively - the baggies quickly became inept in attack and their play going forward tentative. they went on to overcook every ball played into the opposition penalty area and created nothing for themselves in the way of opportunity to get back in the game.

the four-nil scoreline didn't so much reflect how good the home side had been, but rather how poor the baggies were on the day. although there is still an outside chance that the baggies will get a result when they close out the season against manchester united on the last day of the season, i wouldn't bet on it and standard logic would tend to dictate that their best opportunity for reaching the stated goal of achieving 50 points in the league table has now passed them by.

Manchester City F.C. 1-0 WBA

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with the best of intentions, steve clarke forgot that supporters generally aren't interested in evaluating resources or even being entertained by attractive football; they want results regardless of the circumstance. even if we have now been able to determine that markus rosenberg just might be a worthwhile footballer, or the gaffer learned an important lesson about when to make substitutions, nothing will make up for failing to get an expected result.


by and large, football supporters want to hear the final whistle the moment that their team has gone ahead in a match. never mind that a game of association football is supposed to be decided over a full 90 minutes of play. if their side goes ahead in the first five minutes, the average supporter would be happy if the contest ended right then and there.

if steve clarke had any doubts as to the matter, a quick listen to any of the rabid and raving critiques delivered in thick black-country dialect on tom ross' post-game radio show after the away fixture with norwich, he would have unquestionably been put right as to what is expected of himself and his team.

whether he listened in or not, the gaffer has got the point and stated to the local media in birmingham that the baggies will be going back to basics for the season finale at home to the league champions.

WBA 2-3 Wigan Athletic F.C.

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there probably wasn't a better game of football played in the PREMIER LEAGUE this week than west brom's home fixture with wigan. as per usual, the lancashire side were going for yet another one of their trademark end-of-season "great escape" routines - a situation that has inspired them to some top form football in the past - making a match with wigan athletic a perilous proposition for anyone coming up against them in the league at this time of year.


however, coming off a big win at saints, the baggies looked ready for the challenge and wigan actually played some of the most mediocre football that they have in weeks. it still didn't matter in the end. as exciting as the baggies were going forward, they were still subject to some slack defending on set-pieces (a problem all season) and even when the draw looked an inevitability, wigan found a way to get a late winner and keep their hopes for yet another top-flight survival run alive for yet another week.

the latics' best player on the day was without a doubt shaun maloney. the veteran mid-fielder was key in the creation of wigan's last two goals, and if they don't manage another "great escape" then he's someone who will probably see considerable interest from several top-flight clubs, any one of which who would do well in acquiring his considerable personal skill.

Southampton F.C. 0-3 WBA

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while for the past three seasons the baggies have suffered a loss of form that starts just around christmas and carries through until february when they go on a bit of a tear and manage to survive the PREMIER LEAGUE quite comfortably, they have stuttered a little this year. however, with an adventurous setup that included three attacking forwards, it seemed as though they had finally made the breakthrough with this trip to the south-coast.


all three of the starting forward line scored, and while this was somewhat of a sacrifice at the defensive end of the pitch, they still managed a clean sheet and we were rewarded with one of the baggies' best all-round performances of the year.

this was an extremely important result and keeps the baggies on course for the 8th place finish which the team has been building towards since just before christmas. while wins have been hard to come by for west brom since then, their contemporaries in the league haven't done any better with swansea, norwich, newcastle, fulham, west ham and stoke all having similar difficulties in producing a full three-point result in fixtures played over the last five or six weeks. of course, the top TV pundits will quote all the key statistics as evidence of the relatively poor quality of this year's almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE. for the rest of us - that is, supporters of the aforementioned clubs - will be more concerned about our sides keeping pace with their contemporaries in the league and out of the relegation battles. for the moment, that'll probably be good enough.

An Elusive Final Point

Manchester City 4-0 WBA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WBA 3-0 Blackburn Rovers F.C.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aston Villa F.C. 2-1 WBA

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when all is said and done, after a week of intense pressure from a critical local news media over gerard houllier and aston villa's recent mediocre form - and coupled with the hype of the buildup to this match - i don't think that anyone in birmingham or the black country would have realistically expected the albion to go to villa park and come away with 3-points.

the villa are by far and away the biggest club of the four west midlands sides playing in this year's PREMIER LEAGUE and they would go into this match as decided favourites. not because this a particularly good villa side - and this certainly isn't a poor west brom team - but because necessity and playing at home can win local derbies and aston villa needed this one more than can be imagined. in short, they were left with no choice but a win!

following a truly poor performance in their 3-0 monday night loss away to a struggling liverpool side, this was more a match that the villa couldn't afford to lose and absolutely needed to win or face managing a possible crisis and dropping into the relegatoin fight. also gaffer, gerard houllier, had a whack of back-peddling, patch-work public relations to do following some poorly chosen words in regards to his old team, liverpool, and the villa's recent defeat at anfield.



truth to tell, i haven't watched the villa much this year, but from what i have seen they are not a particularly exciting team. whenever i have watched them over the last few years, one thing has been consistent: they are a counter-attacking team who play the long ball. from listening to the post match reactions from the villa supporters on BBC WM, i get the idea that the club has been in a bit of turmoil defensively of late.

most of the supporters' praise was for the full-backs and centre-halfs, especially the inclusion of carlos cuellar - who seemed like he might be a popular choice among supporters for villa's man of the match - and the effective manner in which they dealt with the baggies wingers, jerome thomas and somen tchoyi. it's fair to say that "relief" was the dominant emotion expressed by the phone-in villa supporters.

the baggies support on the other hand was, in general, mildly disappointed but not surprised. when asked by the BBC if they had felt confident of victory prior to the match, a group of albion fans leaving villa park laughed at the question.

"you never feel like that being an albion supporter," one of them answered.



roberto di matteo stuck pretty much with the team that had beaten newcastle the week before. the only conscpicuous absence was that of peter odemwingie, who was replaced in the starting line-up by marc-antoine fortune, due to a reccurring problem with his knee. graham dorrans retained his starter's position in midfield with youssouf mulumbu moved to the bench and just returning from a two-game match ban for a red-card picked up in the now famous victory at goodison park two weeks ago.

in keeping with their playing character of late, the baggies came out with all guns blazing and bossed the first 20 minutes of the match, despite an aston villa formation that forced the albion midfield and backline to play a little bit deeper than they would have liked. while the albion had the major share of possession and somen tchoyi coming dangerously close to scoring in smacking a left-footed effort off the cross-bar, the villa tactics had been disruptive enough that an ensuing counter-attack produced the game's first goal by stewart downing.

emile heskey scored the villa's second in the 79th minute through another break-down at the back allowing a deep cross by marc albrighton to make its way through west brom penalty area and bounce in at the far corner off heskeys's head. in fact, i'm not sure that he knew too much about it until it hit the back of scott carson's goal.

paul scharner continued the excellent form he has shown since moving to centre-half and pulled one back for the baggies to give the game some hope at the end. but it was - as they say - too little too late.



as has happened before, marc-antoine fortune was left isolated, and although good at running the channels and finding space in wide positions, isn't really geared toward attacking goal directly and desperately needs to be played with a strike partner in a traditional 4-4-2.

unfortunately - and while there remains no other comparison - this was the way the albion lost matches during their last PREMIER LEAGUE campaign under tony mowbray; in that, they dominate the play, control the ball well but get caught out by counter-attacking football and making mistakes on defending at the back, especially on set-pieces.

let's hope this is not a pattern that the baggies fall any further into.

Going Where and for How Long?!?!?

in my blog after saturday's loss to stoke city i called for roman bednar to start this weekend against everton. from what i was seeing in the birmingham press, the BBC, and online fan forums, i more than half knew he was on his way out on a loan deal to leicester. however, until it happens he's still part of the team. truthfully, i think the baggies need to change things up a bit and he'd be worth a start for this saturday's match at goodison park, however unlikely it seems at this point.

in fact, bednar was not the subject of initial interests in the idea to loan out one of the first-team strikers to leicester city. originally, the foxes were going to take ishmael miller on loan, and there seemed no question that it was a move designed to give the baggies' long-time injured striker an opportunity to find some match fitness after nearly a two-year lay-off. however, miller again picked up a minor abdominal injury in training prior to the move, and this prompted sven-goran eriksson, in his apparent need for a striker, to switch his attentions to bednar, who - according to all the regular media sources - looked set to go on loan to hull city.

from all reports bednar is unhappy with life at the hawthorns. apparently, he does not want to leave the club but is frustrated at the lack of playing time he's gotten this year. as for west brom's intentions in regard to their two veteran strikers, it's pretty clear that the gaffer wants to keep miller in the sqaud and needs to place him in a medium that will help him to regain his form and fitness. i'm pretty sure we'll still see ishmael miller start for the baggies sometime in the future.



however, i have an unhappy feeling about roman bednar. unless you're actually hanging around the hawthorns all day, watching the training sessions and keeping an eye on movement around the gaffer's office, it's hard to tell what's really going on. but my instincts tell me that bednar, like robert koren before him, has fallen out with di matteo and west brom will be looking to a permanent move for the czech striker in the new year.

i sincerely hope i'm wrong.

i've never been a fan of marc-antoine fortune, and i feel that he was brought to the club under pressure from both within and without the west brom organization. for me, his return always smacked of optimistic desperation, and his re-signing with the club was more the lack of confidence in bednar and miller, fuelled by football pundits in the mainstream media and the increasing influence of internet fan forums, than anything else.

for a newly promoted club, there is always much discussion, opinion and speculation about whether certain members of that team will be good enough to play at the next level up. signing fortune was just a reaction to popular perceptions of west bromwich albion and general assumptions about the level of quality and ability in their players.

both bednar and miller were part of the baggies side which was relegated from the PREMIER LEAGUE in the 2008-09 season. there is no doubt that this colours the public perception of their worth as players. it's fair to say that to say that miller and bednar are all too often patronizingly characterized as "good CHAMPIONSHIP players" but not good enough for the PREMIER LEAGUE.

however, i believe this overlooks the challenges that each of them had to deal with during the last top-flight campaign. miller was the preferred striker in the introduction of a 4-5-1 formation. this was most unusual as under tony mowbray west brom had always played a very orthodox system featuring two strikers. however, he seemed to put a great deal of time and energy into making his new system work and making miller the focus of their attack. i believe that it was something to which miller was not naturally suited save for his obvious talents as a counter-attacking forward. he was having to learn a whole new way to play and it took some time.



the other key factor in all this, due to player departures from the club, was that it was not nearly as good a footballing side as it had been when they won the CHAMPIONSHIP the year before, and they went into the the season pretty thin at some crucial positions. there's no doubt in my mind that they both would have been better players had they been on a better team.

unfortunately for ishmael miller, after having a scored a goal at newcastle and looking like he was coming into form, the baggies' striker was injured in a collision with portsmouth's david james that saw him out of the team for most of the next two years and without a league start for 14-months. he never really got a chance to prove he could play successfully in the premiership.

bednar did ok and scored a fair number of goals given the playing time he got. in the short term following the injury to miller, the gaffer implemented a relatively successful system of rotating utility strikers which included bednar, craig beattie and luke moore.

i have never understood this, as bednar's style would have been much more suited to a 4-5-1 attacking formation, but mowbray just would not play that particular system without ishmael miller and the baggies - to be fair to the gaffer - targeted and fashioned two important wins against tottenham and manchester city with bednar, moore and beattie all scoring important goals.

fortune came into the side and was the focus of much optimism and excitement. his pre-requisite physical attributes and european pedigree created expectations almost immediately. he scored 5 goals in 18 games and eventually left to play for tony mowbray when he took the manager's job at celtic. i believe he scored 12 goals in the SPL and it remained a common wisdom that fortune was a PREMIER LEAGUE striker where bednar and miller decidedly weren't.



with the former belief widely held, ishmael miller still picking up training injuries and the club in need of strikers for the upcoming PREMIER LEAGUE campaign, west brom brought fortune back to the club from celtic, together with peter odemwingie, a nigerian international from lokomotiv moscow.

odemwingie surprisingly started upon arrival at the hawthorns and was an immediate sensation, scoring the winning goal in the baggies' first win of the season, a 1-0 victory over sunderland at home.

since then, odemwingie has become the first choice striker, missing only a couple of matches through minor injury. with fortune as the apparent second-choice, bednar has recently been limited to two short appearances as a late substitution in league matches, where he has looked more like a snarling pit-bull who has just gotten a frustrating sniff of raw meat before being put back in the cage than a centre-forward.

meanwhile, it looks like they're going to keep miller at the club and figure out some way of getting the 24-year old fit again after a continuous string of injuries which continues to interrupt his career.

i'm sure that the baggies will make a move for a quality striker (there are rumours of interest in sanli tuncay of stoke city) in january and get by on being a little thin in that department until then. however things turn out - and barring his recall to the team much as craig beattie was brought back from sheffield united last year - we may very well have seen the last of roman bednar in the navy-and-white stripes.

i shall always remember his time at the hawthorns fondly and will continue to follow his career and cheer for his success wherever he goes.

WBA 2-1 Fulham F.C.

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the baggies have survived - and actually taken impressive points from - what can only be described as a period of "bonus" opportunities, from which no-one really expected too much and any gains made, at all, would be counted as success. west bromwich albion now enter a series of matches which will be seen as an essential source of necessary points, and much more important in the overall scheme of things than a set of seemingly (and at their outset) next-to-impossible away fixtures against the top clubs in the country.

at the start of league play in august, and from looking at the fixtures list, this is the time of year where everyone would have expected the season to really be starting for the baggies. so to have made a good start in the league is not only a surprise, but a major accomplishment and important points garnered that precious few were expecting.

in fact, the baggies have exceeded the wildest of expectations and for a few hours on saturday night/sunday morning of this past weekend, at least, they sat it in fourth place overall behind chelsea, manchester city and tottenham hotspur. they are playing some of the best football in the league and are arguably the league's "form" team over the last two months.



after the exploits of recent weeks, the albion faithful have finally started to warm to roberto di matteo; which, is something that has been curiously long in coming. even with the success of last season and his superb preparation and signings for the upcoming top-flight campaign, the ex-chelsea midfielder and MK dons boss may have finally eclipsed the likes of bryan robson and tony mowbray in the hearts of the albion faithful, but he has a few games to win yet before he'll be as well regarded and esteemed as gary megson, who is still seen as the man who built the modern club's on-field character, and laid the foundations for subsequent claims to premiership football.

after the manchester united match, i started to imagine how di matteo - who was a well respected professional that played league and international football at its highest level - may one day eclipse his achievements as a player and go on to become one of football's great managers.

"good managers make good sides," brian clough once explained, "there's no such thing as a side making a manager."

what has been true of the albion this season, is that every game has been superbly managed. the gaffer has been adventurous when he's needed to be and he's made good decisions with both the team and the tactics. not only that, but he seems to have an especially good rapport with the players and is a gaffer for whom most players would really want to play - as well as feel encouraged to do so. there's more than a few members of the team who were languishing in the reserves or perpetually stuck on the bench who were immediately switched on by his arrival at the club; where under tony mowbray they'd been unhappy, under played and in some cases, wanting to leave.



as the albion seem to have done for the last 50 years or so, they went behind in this one with less than nine minutes played. ex-baggie, zoltan gera, found himself with time and space, setting up a clear shot at goal from 25 yards out, following a poor mistake by youssouf mulumbu, giving the ball away in a dangerous area. while a diving scott carson got a hand to the ball, managing to push it onto the post, it rebounded unkindly for the west brom captain and bounced into the net off the back of his leg.

appropriately, the hungarian international and ex-hathorns favourite diplomatically waved away any goal celebration in remembering the four years that he spent as a very popular first-team player at west brom.

the baggies came close to going two goals behind a couple of minutes later, as a poor back-pass was pounced on by another ex-albion favourite, diomansy kamara, but the fulham striker shot just wide.

eight minutes after the opening goal, however, mulumbu made up for his earlier mistake to bring the baggies level. uncharacteristically the congolese midfielder went forward in attack and took a superb through ball from chris brunt that completely split the fulham defence and the baggies were back on level terms as marc schwarzer was left stranded without a chance and mulumbu with his first PREMIER LEAGUE goal.

true to form, the baggies took the lead before half-time as a second albion player also got his name onto the score-sheet for the first time this season.



west brom went ahead on marc-antoine fortune's first goal of the season, but not without some controversy. fortune was clearly in an off-side position when the ball was played in. however, the french striker had turned away from the play to move back onside, leaving the ball to run on for albion left-winger, jerome thomas. thomas cut in along the bi-line and with the fulham defence once again caught square, he sent the ball back across the face of goal for - the now onside - fortune to slot home.

predictably, the legitimacy of both goals was questioned by fulham boss, mark hughes. however, neither goal was inconsistant with how the off-side rule is being interpreted or applied this season. so i think neither was really as contentious as the welshman would have us believe.

the albion now have a nine day break from league football, with a LEAGUE CUP 5th round match with leicester city at the walkers stadium on tuesday. the baggies are firm favourites to take a place in the quarter finals from this fixture.

with a trip to bloomfield road a week monday - and full live international TV coverage - both blackpool and west brom will have a chance of showing a larger audience the quality of their football; and with both of last year's fixtures seeing west brom produce a pair of 3-2 victories (including a contentious penalty decision), the tangerines - and manager, ian holloway - will feel the need to be playing for a little retribution. it should be great fun and good football!