Newcastle United F.C. 2-1 WBA

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if last week left west bromwich albion supporters dissapointed, then this must have been something more like complete and utter psychological devastation. i, myself, was left in a state of total disbelief, raging at an empty, chaotic universe devoid of god and meaning. unlike the loss to manchester city one week earlier, this was just cruel on the baggies.

as a supporter, there is generally one or two fixtures throughout the course of a season where the level of frustration is beyond what is reasonably endurable. two years ago, there was an away match to blackpool that was particularly frustrating to witness. last year, it was the home game against everton that was hard to swallow. but to have this happen two weeks running...

i'm at a loss...


due to the recent and relative fortunes of each club, west brom and newcastle have had some epic encounters during this last four seasons. both clubs (along with middlesbrough) were relegated at the end of 2008-09. while this was expected of the baggies, it took the toon by surprise; and where the albion and boro' were both expected to come straight back up again, united were tipped by some pundits for big troubles and eventual relegation to LEAGUE 1.

however, it was middesbrough who ran into problems in the second-tier, and the magpies won the division, setting new records along the way. west brom came up in the other automatic spot along with blackpool, who won promotion by virtue of the playoffs.

the two sides drew 1-1 at the hawthorns on opening day of the 2009-10 CHAMPIONSHIP season. this was a significant match for newcastle, as their current number one goalie, tim krul, made his senior debut for the club, coming on at half-time for an injured steve harper. the two sides then doubled up on the previous goal tally with a 2-2 stalemate at (as it was then) st. james' park, before the baggies knocked united out of the FA CUP at home by a score of 4-2 in the 4th round. it was in this last encounter that roberto di matteo, finding himself short on strikers, discovered the virtues of a 4-5-1 playing formation.


the next time they met, the albion won 3-1 at the hawthorns, and on the final day of the season somen tchoyi scored a famous hat-trick in the last ten minutes of the game to earn yet another draw with a final score of 3-3. this was the result which propelled the baggies to a creditable 11th place finish just ahead of the magpies in 12th.

last year, west brom went to st. james' park (now burdened with the ridiculous official name of 'SportsDirect.com@StJamesPark Stadium') and came away with a surprise 3-2 win over an in form newcastle side. united returned the favour by coming to the hawthorns and beating the baggies 3-1.

as the two sides kicked off their fifth consecutive season of facing each other in league competition, the baggies have gotten off to a flying start while the toon have struggled a little with the added pressure of waging a EUROPA LEAGUE campaign. this has seen their domestic league form drop off from the pace that produced last year's excellent, surprise 5th place finish.

not since taking over as the head man at west brom have steve clarke's tactics been so transparent. having learned a valuable lesson against the league champions the week before, the baggies were content to let the home side have the bulk of possession and look to break on the counter.

while the toon did have more of the possession, their chances were limited. the first real scoring opportunity came in the 12th minute when a ball played in by shola ameobi found demba ba free at the far post. the newcastle striker, however, couldn't find the target and headed wide.


the magpies then had a couple of chances that developed from a low, hard drive hit from 30 yards out by defender, davide santon. the shot was on target and required a smart save from ben foster to turn it round his left hand post. while the ensuing corner produced a free header for shola ameobi, the ball came straight into the arms of the albion goalie who easily gathered coming off his line.

in the 25th minute, the baggies showed how dangerous they can be on the break. with newcastle having won another corner, gareth mccauley cleared and james morrison astutely set graham dorrans on a run and into a 3-on-2 counter attack along with peter odemwingie and romelu lukaku. the scottish international played the ball in perfectly for lukaku to take what was easily the best chance of the match to that point. however, tim krul was equal to the challenge and came out sharply to make a stunning save from the young belgian international.

demba ba put newcastle ahead with a trademark bit of strength and skill in the 35th mintue. taking advantage of a miscued header by gareth mccauley on a ball played into the albion box, the senagalese striker made no mistake in muscling his way forward, turning and smashing past ben foster on the volley for the opening goal of the game.

at the other end - and in the 39th minute - lukaku had a similar opportunity to his earlier effort as youssouf mulumbu's through ball put the albion striker in behind the united defense, but was again foiled by krul's excellent anticipation and positioning in the newcastle goal.

with newcastle still leading at half-time, the game took a change of course in the second period. the toon, having played a EUROPA LEAGUE fixture at home to brugge on thursday began to look tired and the albion took control of the match and finally equalized in the 55th minute.

from a quickly played baggies free-kick, lukaku knocked the ball back for zoltan gera who made a short run to the outside at the top of the united area before looping in a perfect cross for lukaku in behind the newcastle back-line to head in at the far post, leaving krul no chance of a save.


as the match progressed, the baggies looked the more likely to push on and find a winner, but were beaten in the end by a somewhat flukey goal deep into injury time.

with time running out and newcastle given the opportunity for a final attack, the baggies made the fatal mistake of allowing hatem ben arfa to bring the ball across the half-way line, cut inside and make a 40-yard diagonal run deep into the west brom half. while a challenge eventually came in from james morrison, the ball ran for sammy ameobi to have a shot from just beyond the edge of the box. with foster moving into a covering position to see the shot wide, the ball took a deflection off papiss cissé, changed direction and with the albion goalie wrong footed and stranded, bounced into an open net.

as with the game against manchester city, west brom side played better in the second-half and deserved at least a point from each game. there was a lesson to be learned from the manchester city encounter; but not here. this was just plain old cosmic spite.

In search of Form and Finish

Everton F.C. 2-0 WBA

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it's almost as if their loss to manchester united brought the high-flying baggies back down to earth. since their visit to old trafford - and on the back of three big wins just prior to that - west brom's form has gone out the window and the team seem to be at a loss for what to do next.

in regards to last week's home defeat to newcastle, it was a continuation of the form that the baggies had shown the week before at wigan, where they were lucky enough to get away with a draw. the problem of the moment would seem to be one of motivation. the baggies are coming up against teams who have either the opportunity of qualifying for europe or are fighting against relegation. the baggies, on the other hand, seem aimless and without purpose.





they simply need one win and one draw from any of the next seven matches to reach the magic "40-point" mark and are already probably secure for a place in next year's PREMIER LEAGUE anyway. so there is definitely a diminished sense of urgency about the side and that has been plainly evident since their historic home victory over chelsea. perhaps if they had spent money on bringing big names players to the club (thus creating a heightened sense of expectation) or their home form in the league had been better, then the situation might be different. who knows?!?

the truth is that the baggies had probably already secured top-fight football for next season when gareth mcauley tapped home the game's only goal to nick an important 3-points from chelsea at the hawthorns four weeks ago. since then, however, they have put in three really tepid performances against wigan, newcastle and everton, respectively, and have looked like a side that just doesn't know where it's going or understands anything of its current objectives.





indeed, while the (somewhat unrealistic) goal of european qualification that many of us had hoped for after last year's solid mid-table finish never materialized, the baggies have also kept clear of drop-zone all season. they did not spend the money that some of their contemporaries - like stoke city and QPR - did, and one of the league's best away records (offset by some poor home performances) has kept them in and around the middle of the bottom half of the table, and safe from the threat of relegation throughout the campaign.

WBA 1-3 Newcastle United F.C.

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after being absolutely taken apart by this year's surprise team, newcastle united - who themsleves are on course for european football next season - the baggies travelled to goodison park to complete a trio of losses to the toffees, who not only did a league double over the albion on the season - having won what was a rather listless fixture at the hawthorns back in january - but also knocked west brom out of the LEAGUE CUP in september after extra-time in a match that the baggies had every opportunity to win.

the albion just haven't been showing up lately and looked truly anemic on this particular trip to merseyside.





aside from james morrison - who is now out for the rest of the season - and striker, marc antoine fortune, the only player who has continued to put in good performances week in week out is goalie, ben foster. baggies fans can only hope that the club can sign the ex-england international for next season - a circumstance that will be complicated if birmingham city can manage to win promotion this year. he is, debatably, the best goalie that has ever played at the hawthorns and has been a big part of the team's successes this year. keeping him at the club is of the utmost importance.

while i was glad to see chris brunt back in the team, he should not have made himself available for the encounter with a newcastle side who are threatening to finish in the top four this season. however, one has to admire a footballer, in this day and age, who still wants to play as badly as the baggies captain does. not only was brunt still coming back from the first major injury of his career, but was apparently also suffering most recently from a case of tonsilitis. however, his presence in the side didn't help any and the baggies went to goodison park as aimlessly and without purpose as they have been all season. once again, they paid for it with a loss, going down to the in-form toffees by a score of 2-0.





it may sound a strange thing to say, but the baggies have been very consistent this year. i'm sure that there are one or two sesaon-ticket holders that would argue the point, but two or three poor results have usually been followed by two or three decent performances and just when it looks like they might be in danger of dropping into a relegation fight, they have managed to pull out of it and have done what has been needed to keep their head above water and on course for top-flight football again next season.

of course, this quality has been somewhat mitigated by poor results at the hawthorns this year, and hasn't done much to endear the current sqaud to the home support. however, they have turned this around somewhat since the new year, and if previous form is any indication, the albion are due for a win when they welcome blackburn rovers to the hawthorns on the 7th of april.

Two Wins and a Draw...

WBA 0-0 Manchester City F.C.

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if one could accurately judge the performance of a football team based on what that club's supporters have to say, a quick glance at the posts in any online forum, or casual listening to post-match radio phone-ins dealing with west bromwich albion football club would suggest a wild inconsistency in quality of play over the past 6 weeks.

nothing could be further from the truth.





while results may have been erratic, and perhaps a bit unlucky, roy hodgson's west brom side has been consistently delivering good on-field performances since their win at home against bolton. even the subsequent home loss to spurs could be counted as a good footballing performance and the 3-1 scoreline certainly flattered the visitors on the day. the difficulty is in getting the average supporter (or at least, the average online poster) to believe in anything but results, and the derision aimed at the manager, chairman and certain individual players is all too often quite unbelievable.

Newcastle United F.C. 2-3 WBA

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after having listened to the baggies' home loss to wigan, i could hardly believe it when roy hodgson appeared on TV saying that he had no complaints about the team's performance and if they continue to play to this level they will certainly start to get results. it turned out over the next few weeks to be true. roy hodgson's baggies have started to get results.

however, at the time this sounded quite incredible and was completely at odds with what i had just heard online through the ALBION RADIO transmission on the club's website. it had portrayed the baggies' home fixture against premier league strugglers, wigan athletic, as tragic and a terrible game of football on all counts. indeed, it was made to sound so bad that both chris hall and dave bowler spent much of the match decrying the quality of the football rather than offering a description of the action.





"as you can tell," mr. bowler addressed the listening audience following a lengthy digression in the commentary, "there ay' much going on 'ere!"

however, when viewed as a TV broadcast later on that evening, it was a thoroughly engaging match with both teams playing well through the midfield and exhibiting fine displays of individual defending. most notable was the work of wigan defender, gary caldwell, and the goalkeeping of ali al-habsi.

what is apparent from reading posts made in online fan forums is how easy it is to forcefully state a harsh, critical and judgmental opinion. positive and measured speculation as to how the side might improve its play or what the team might be missing in terms of tactics, team selection and/or transfer goals is much more difficult. when result and form aren't meeting supporter expectation, finding a scapegoat is always the first order of business.

Blackburn Rovers F.C. 1-2 WBA

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i don't really know what the baggies' supporters expect realistically, but with most of the albion's points coming away from home, i get the idea that the atmosphere at the hawthorns can get unpleasant pretty quickly these days. the worst example being the aforementioned match against a visiting wigan athletic side.

whatever the case, the baggies have ended 2011 with three excellent results that leave them at 9th in the table and with a mid-season haul of 22 points. in a year that 36-38 points will probably be enough to secure survival - and barring a protracted run of completely disastrous results - the albion will almost certainly be playing top-flight football again next year. i can't understand what all the fuss is about!!!

the truth is, that the style of football that the baggies are playing at the moment is based on the two solid lines of four defenders and mid-fielders holding their shape, and two pacey forwards to produce the counter attack. this will cause the attacking team to have to play the ball wide as their only option coming forward, and any move to play through the middle or put in a cross is quickly cut out. the effectiveness of this style of play was best illustrated in the last match against newcastle, where the winning goal seemed to appear out of absolutely nothing and completely against the run of play.





likewise, the baggies' first half display of single-minded and resolute defending against a frighteningly good manchester city team was nothing short of brilliant, and left west brom with the very real possibility of nicking a win late on rather than sharing the points as they eventually did.

this is fine for away games and has a general use against superior opposition (like manchester city), but they are going to run into trouble playing this way at home against their contemporaries in the bottom-half of the table; and that's exactly what has happened. the gaffer probably needs to rethink how the albion play at the hawthorns. i think it's the most pressing issue for hodgson and his management staff to sort out going into 2012.

like anyone, i'd love to see an improvement on the current home form and would readily welcome some new players to come in and strengthen the squad during the january transfer window. i do have faith that roy hodgson knows what he's doing in that respect and can only hope he's given the resource and leeway to follow through.

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.

WBA 3-1 Newcastle United F.C.

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roberto di matteo made a truly inspired, instructional and intelligent team selection for his starting 11 against west brom's promoted contemporaries, newcastle united.

the gaffer was really astute - and in the light of jonas olsson's continued absence through injury - to put paul scharner at centre-half. the austrian international - who has been playing as a holding midfielder in partnership with youssouf mulumbu - has been afforded a real way to relax his game, stick to the specific, technical and well-defined duties of a centre-half; as well as make better use of his natural talents as an attacking player on set pieces. in fact, it was his move to centre-half that led to his first goal for the club against everton last week. he also seems to bring the intangible quality of unifying the two central defenders, where tamas and ibanez - both excellent defenders in their own right - were struggling for the cohesion that a character like olsson - and now scharner - injects into the back-line.

likewise, the gaffer found the perfect role for graham dorrans in the holding midfield spot left open by youssouf mulumbu's two-game match suspension. the young scot looked comfortable, and with a similarly well defined set of duties in regards to his position, and like his austrian team-mate, was able to relax his game and get some much needed time with a ball at his feet in a competitive situation.



chris brunt was deployed as the central midfielder and somen tchoyi took brunt's regular place on the right wing with jerome thomas back at his usual position on the left. upon initial scrutiny, i'm sure that most people would have assumed that it would be brunt in the holding role and dorrans in his preferred attacking position. but this was real stroke of brilliance both tactically and in terms of personnel manangement.

atypcially, the baggies came straight out of the blocks, and without their usual slow start, pressed the ball from a high position with a very tight 4-5-1 formation, never allowing the toon to settle or get anything together coming forward.

peter odemwingie was excellent, tirelessly ball chasing and harrying defenders, forcing ill-concieved and desperate clearances from both the keeper and back four. his approach paid off as he later took advantage of two critical mistakes leading directly to both his goals.

however, it was actually somen tchoyi who opened the scoring on the half-hour mark. taking a short pass from chris brunt on the edge of the newcastle penalty area - and as still somewhat of an unknown quantity in the PREMIER LEAGUE - the big albion winger, holding the ball on his left foot and just long enough to see some space open up in front of him, surprisingly curled a shot inside the far post. it seemed that no one was really expecting it and being seemingly wrong-footed, he had caught both newcastle defenders and goalie alike quite unprepared.



except for a brief period in the second-half when the toon looked like they might get a goal back, the baggies were in command from the first whistle. on the heels of scott carson's excellent save from steven taylor's header, andy carrol created problems for the albion back four as he got on the end of a looping through ball that caught paul scharner desperately backpeddling and nearly responsible for an own goal. luckily marek cech, positoned well and tracking back, was able to clear the ball off the line with about a yard to spare.

other than that, newcastle were surprisingly flat and the absence of kevin nolan was more than notable.

with the score at 3-0 and the game well into stoppage time, scott carson was cruelly denied a clean sheet when peter lovenkrans scored, picking up carson's initial save from a close range shot by andy carrol. the TV replay showed carrol to have handled the ball in bringing the initial cross under control. while not intentional, it was still clearly handball and the young striker looked as surprised as anyone that the goal was allowed to stand.

this was a first-class performance and a well-timed victory helping to consolidate the baggies' return to form after five games without a win. following their first victory at goodison park since 1979, and just ahead of two important derbies - away to the villa and home to wolves - this left the albion as having the best record of last year's promoted teams as well as the being the top side amongst the four west midlands clubs.



at the beginning of the year, i had boldly picked the baggies to finish (what would be) a surprising 11th in the league. at the time it may have seemed a little optimistic, but jeremy peace, roberto di matteo, dan ashworth et al. haved worked hard and put together a better football team than i think many were aware. i knew that this team was going to be a bit of a surprise in the PREMIER LEAGUE, and a mid-table finish is beginning to look more of an eventuality than remote possibility.

their success thus far has been based on an all round excellent scouting system that has looked for competitively priced players in secondary european leagues; many of whom were completely unknown in england, as well as signing domestic top-flight cast-offs and underrated home grown talent.

in spite of this not being newcastle's day, the three promoted sides have all played beyond expectations and made a contribution towards seeing attacking football played in the top-flight in what has been the most competitive and open PREMIER LEAGUE in years. some think for the better - others, for the worse. whatever the case as to the technical state of football, it's a more entertaining competition this year, and gratifying for all the supporters of teams who've exceeded expectations and/or produced some sure-shock results.

for the moment, it's good to be an albion fan!

Newcastle United - League and Cup

WBA 4-2 Newcastle Utd.

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one fact was clear about this match straight off the bat: the albion were making a run for the cup and newcastle (for whatever reason?!?!) were not. as far as the albion is concerned, this is always a good move and a cup run enhances the club's success in league play as well.

the baggies have always been a cup team, and in any category you look they are still one of the top-ten clubs in this particular competition: 20 FA CUP semi-finals, 10 finals appearances, and five cups won. this is still a better record overall than chelsea, for example. with this being the 90th anniversary of our only ever league championship, it's also worth remembering that the albion's fame has always been based on cup success and respectable league standings.

the FA CUP win of 1954 was followed by three straight top-five finishes in the 1st division. this is the spirit of west bromwich albion.



while the world's oldest football competition has lost much of its glamour and popularity due to the season-ticket culture that dominates match attendance amongst the country's bigger clubs, and fully televised premiership and UEFA schedules have taken interest and precedence from the cup, it is still the competition for which west bromwich albion is most famous and i think that ignoring the cup is a serious mistake for any baggies team.

i have to admire roberto di matteo for starting a full-strength line-up. it is an absolute credit to the gaffer's understanding of english football, and - more importantly - the spirit and history of west bromwich albion. he knows that for the baggies, a cup run is fine and fair accompaniment to a successful showing in the league.

despite not scoring as he had in the last two matches this was actually roman bednar's best performance on the year, and he knew it. ishmael miller continued his return to football with another late inclusion as a substitute. i imagine that this will go on for the next month or so until the big striker is fit enough to start and possibly play through an entire 90 minutes.

as to the team selection - and the seemingly unusual 4-5-1 attacking formation - it is very similar to how tony mowbray was setting up during what i always refer to as the "ishmael miller project" of last year. while it looked like a 4-5-1, the ex-gaffer was really playing jonathan greening in an advanced attacking position alongside miller. di matteo's setup is a little more conventional as he has both graham dorrans and robert koren in position to go forward as attacking midfielders. my thought on this is that it might see more success with koren pushed forward into an orthodox striker's position, playing in support of either bednar or miller as the target-man.

with the next round an away draw to reading, the albion are already looking a good bet for the quarter-finals and with so many of the big clubs gone from the competition, we might be able to start dreaming just a little about the possibility of becoming the first championship side to win a wembley cup final.

Newcastle Utd. 2-2 WBA

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well, this was roman bednar's - and perhaps the team's - best game of the season so far. there is no doubt that with 2 goals in as many games, the big czech striker is looking like he's finally rediscovering his past form.

after having been part of an all-round terrible performance against nottingham forest, gabriel tamas showed that he is a tough, resolute and sometimes dirty defender who has a definite contribution to make in a side that is generally short on tough, and sometimes dirty players. as well, ishmael miller's return looks more of an immediate threat than one might have expected, with the big striker hitting the post and unlucky not to score what would have been the winning goal in the last few minutes against newcastle.



as good a game as this was - and a draw being the fairest of all outcomes - it didn't do much for the baggies in terms of the table. the 2-points that they took from newcastle seem far more important than the single-point registered, and the albion are going to need a five or six game run of wins at some point if they really want to secure automatic promotion. however, this is the championship and judging by historical precedent, nottingham forest may just have peaked too early in the season and will, in all likelihood, end this term in playoff position.

i still have confidence - and even if it's just on goal difference - that the baggies will just edge it as far as automatic promotion places go.

Huddersfield Town 0-2 WBA

live text replay

this was perhaps the most unique media coverage of a football match i have ever seen or heard.

usually, the transmission of a match on ALBION RADIO through the PLAYER service on the club website begins about an hour before the match. there is some music played, sometimes it's just the sounds of the stadium PA system; i've even heard the crew doing their setup and mic checks before the game. but today there was nothing. i connected to the albion stream and it was dead. the embedded flashplayer was also indicating that the transmission was OFF-AIR. going back to the website homepage there was a news post about temporary difficulties with match commentary transmission at the galpharm stadium.

i switched to the huddersfield town stream - which transmits commentary from BBC Leeds - and that too cut out briefly at around the 15 minute mark. switching back to the albion stream i found that they had managed to get the transmission started, but were using a cell-phone passed back and forth between the two commentators to call the match on. as you can imagine, the sound was tinny and distorted and you could clearly hear them plugging in the recharger when needed during what was clearly a highly improvised effort. they obviously couldn't find a way to make their usual setup run and were forced to make use of a comically low-tech solution.



as for the match itself, the gaffer gave roman bednar a start with simon cox and put luke moore on the bench for this one. it was obvious, however, the present albion attacking formation with its deliberate lack of width, takes the big czech striker completely out of the game. he didn't really get much of the ball going forward and for the most part made little impact. roberto di matteo will have to put some thought into how he's going to use bednar for the rest of the season.

as usual, the baggies were slow out of the box and scott carson - back from a three game suspension - took command of his penalty area early on with the huddersfield attack looking to set up some good chances in their initial possessions.

the match was more or less what i had hoped for against the only unbeaten home side in the country. i knew this wasn't going to be easy, as the town carry a very big squad and are a fairly large club as far as their current division is concerned. it certainly wouldn't have been a huge upset if they'd scrapped a victory out of this one.

chris brunt looks to be back in form making a couple of good chances for himself, and graham dorrans once again took control of the central mid-field, scoring the first goal of the match to bring his season total to a club-leading 8.

the baggies went two goals up and clinched the match after chris wood came on as substitute. taking a well placed through ball from youssouf mulumbu, the teenage new zealand international used his considerable pace to move to the outside and past the last huddersfield defender, getting the ball on to his right foot and putting a well placed shot past the the town keeper with a great deal of poise and composure for his second score of the season.



the virtue of this baggies team is that it is no way reliant on a single player. while the tactics and play might suffer through chris brunt, jerome thomas, or graham dorrans being injured or not playing well, there is any number of players who are capable of spear-heading the albion attack. along with the three aforementioned players, marek cech, simon cox, luke moore, roman bednar and jonas olsson have all also variously taken turns in leading the team in attack and on at least one occasion each have produced a brace of goals. while graham dorrans came close against scunthorpe, no one at the club has yet scored a hat-trick on the season. in fact, with 48 goals scored in 23 league matches and a further 7 scored over 4 games in cup competitions, there are no less than 15 players who have contributed to the total offensive output.

after several disappointing results (including a 0-2 home loss to cardiff city) the baggies form seems to be on the up again just in time for two truly huge matches against 3rd place nottingham forest at home this friday, and away to league-leaders newcastle on monday night of the following week. they will then resume their FA Cup campaign against either newcastle or plymouth pending the 3rd round replay of that match.

the albion are certainly facing their biggest challenges of the season this next two weeks and will have to be in top form in order to gain maximum points and continue to make something of a cup run.

WBA 1-1 Newcastle United

from the discrepancies in the local TV listings - including those aired on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA itself - i can only conclude that they haven't quite figured out here who can actually broadcast what, when, how, why and where, as of yet! while SETANTA has newly picked up the rights to 60 championship matches from the BBC, they were changing the TV listings for this one right up until the last minute. in fact, on LIVESOCCERTV.COM, which is usually pretty reliable and my first choice as a source for information on local televised football broadcasts - there was conflicting scheduling, with the baggies' home opener listed as being "live" on SETANTA in the 12.30 PM time-slot; as well as a repeat of the second-leg of celtic v dinamo moscow listed for 1.00.

this may have been on account of changing information in relation to the tri-nations tournament rugby (south africa v australia), which overlapped and ran past the start of the west brom match by half an hour. sure enough, this was followed by a repeat of the second-leg of celtic v dinamo moscow match from earlier in the week. the listing then changed to a first-run, time-delay broadcast at 8.30 pm for the west brom match. while the time listing turned out to be accurate, they had the actual first-run broadcast of the match at 5.30; which, had been the time listed in the original posting of last week, but having since been revised - and at the actual time of first broadcast wasn't listed at all!

myself - being a new subscriber, and never having heard their online audio commentary before - i went ahead and listened to the match live on the WBA website. beyond the novelty of a new experience - and the luxury of actually following the match live - i really enjoyed how the game worked as audio commentary; and later on after seeing it on TV - how different the two experiences are.

the match started off at a fairly high-tempo, and the ball-possession moved the match from end to end in a series of creditable attacking moves by both teams. this had a particularly exciting effect on the audio commentary. as the match was moving at a quicker tempo than your average match, so likewise was the commentary - and almost to the point of frenzy. i realized that being audio only this was necessarily so, just in order to deliver an accurate description of the action. whereas with TV, a higher tempo game actually causes the commentators to use a more dramatic, point-form syntax in order to speed up what is being said and let the video information do the work. it was a first hand example of how TV cools things down and radio hots them up.

live text replay


all in all, i have to say i was happy roberto dimatteo's choice of starting line-up. the one possible question mark was the selection of youngster chris woods over simon cox; but in the end, it was a fairly even-handed decision as the 17-year-old acquitted himself more than adequately over the 81 minutes he played - although his performance was somewhat diminished as he was left on too long, and should have given way to a cox substitution 10-15 minutes earlier. that in itself might have produced a winning result instead of the draw.

united surprised me. although they definitely look - and from the lofty heights from whence they came - to have all the earmarks of a club in crisis, there is a big difference between a "yo-yo" or perpetual second tier-club in crisis and a top-ten club in crisis. for this very fact - along with albion's open, skilled, controlling brand of attacking football, this never looked a second division match and these are both going to be consistently strong clubs at this level of the english game... never mind the "club in crisis" or "yo-yo team" tags! these were big clubs playing strong, fast football!

i was especially pleased with the selection of shelton martis to the first team. despite the fact that he was responsible for one of the myriad defensive giveaway goals, rather late in the season that the baggies were famous for last year; he was otherwise the best starter at his position in central defense all last year. leon barnett and ryan donk proved themselves inexperienced, and meite (who started off well) lost his nerve. i think it was fitting that he scored a goal and cemented his place in the first-team right at the outset. with jonas olsson back from injury, paul robinson (and his angry clown act) gone to bolton, and marek cech bringing some skill to the outside left - i think the backline will be greatly improved and we should see a few more clean sheets this year.

we're not going to see ishmael miller back until christmas, i would guess; but the arrival of dimatteo has obviusly good for more than a couple of the players. luke moore is slowly and surprisingly claiming his spot as the club's senior striker, and looks a completely different player under RDM than he did with mowbray. as do craig beattie, and marek cech, as well.



other than that, there was very little difference in terms of performance in this match and the performances of last year's team. save that this year's baggies feels a lot tighter and confident all around; is definitely looking more solid and skillful at the back; more sure of itself at this level of football; and developing and acquiring the necessary strikers to make a genuine run for promotion. present was the familiar poor finishing on a couple of occasions with both martis and greening missing a pair of absolute sitters, but by and large the baggies were held to a single-goal draw on the merits of newcastle's half-time replacement in goal, tim krul, who came on for the injured steven harper. indeed, a couple of poor finishes aside (and by both teams as well), the baggies were robbed of a win here by a positively electrifying second-half performance in the united goal, and damien duff's early second half equalizer.

the overwhelming percentage of matches that ended in draws on the championship's opening weekend is probably a little hint as to how competitive a division this could be this year. however, having seen the middlesbrough v sheffield united, as well as the coventry v ipswich town matches, i did feel the baggies game with newcastle had a slightly higher quality of football than either of the other two; and both these teams - along with cardiff city should be top bets to go up this year.



while i was wary of RDM taking over at the hawthorns, he has done a really good job so far of retaining the professional loyalty of both recent and long-time veterans in greening, brunt, koren, olsson, and zuiverloon; while giving renewed confidence and playing time to cech, teixeira, beattie and most especially moore. he has also understood, in having brought up chris woods - and with the acquisition of simon cox (not to mention the club's recent interest in jermaine beckford) the absolute need for strikers in order for the albion's traditional style of football to flourish and remain an overall winning proposition.

at this point, the gaffer's got me on his side and i've got every confidence that this is going to be a satisfying, fun, and above all - winning season.