Abroad Again Back Home

WBA 2-2 Aston Villa F.C.

match text commentary
i have been on vacation... again.

since my 50th birthday, when i returned to england after an absence of 34 years, i have been going back to visit twice a year. with my mother having initially gone back in 1986 - and then making a second permanent return in 1989 - england is now the family home. this offers me a great excuse to get to the hawthorns a couple of times a year, and i am also afforded the opportunity to visit other grounds and watch other teams. on my last visit, for example, i went to meadow lane for the first time and watched notts county play bury on the friday night before sunderland came to the hawthorns... yet another adventure in my ever growing number of overnight tours of midlands' football stadia.

on tuesdays - and when i am in london - i go watch brentford at griffin park.

one of the sad ironies of my trips these days, is that with the baggies playing in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE, i now only see them live twice a year. whereas, i went to six fixtures - and could have made it seven if i'd been able to get my ass up to middlesbrough on a sunday afternoon - the year they won promotion. also, much to my dismay, i can't get tickets to away matches anymore. evidently, top-flight football has its price. for two years running, i've seen brentford more times than i've been to watch the baggies; and last year, i went to both griffin park and the county ground at swindon more times than i was able to get to the hawthorns.

Everton F.C. 2-1 WBA

match text commentary

i actually started this trip with the chelsea v brentford 4th round FA CUP replay at stamford bridge. this was the most oppressive atmosphere that i have yet encountered when attending football in england since the 1970s.

perhaps i am underestimating the fact that it was a local derby and the heightened security was warranted, but the general attitude of the stewards was excessive. for example, access to the club shop was physically blocked to away supporters and one particular steward outside the stadium took, what i felt, was an inappropriate interest in my activities as i photographed the brentford supporters coming down the brick-wall enclosed lane-way leading to the famous "shed end" of stamford bridge.

it appears that chelsea football club provides part-time employment for every dance-club bouncer and neighbourhood tough-guy in the west end of london.

while the bee's acquitted themselves well in the first-half, thanks to the goalkeeping of simon moore, it was all the LEAGUE ONE side had in them. after a decent crack at goal by adam foreshaw went just wide, and a poor decision by the referee saw marcello trotta's goal pulled back, the score remained 0-0 through half-time. however, the first chelsea goal came within minutes of the restart and that was the signal for the flood gates to open. the home side ran out easy winners by a score of 4-0.

it didn't matter and was surely something that we all knew was possible - and even likely - but by virtue of the fact that brentford took six thousand travelling supporters to stamford bridge, it was a significant event. i had been to a home fixture in the league last year that drew less than four thousand. of course, that match was on TV, so smaller than usual numbers at the gate would be expected.

WBA 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

match text commentary
my next trip was to cardiff on a tuesday night. ironically, i had been there before and felt no connection to cardiff city football club whatsoever and had not anticipated returning. however, that particular experience had been soured before the fact that i had gone to cardiff because i hadn't been able to get tickets to watch the baggies away to the villa, and i simply wasn't going to spend a saturday afternoon in england (or wales, for that matter) without going to the football. it was one of my first great experiences of disillusionment with life in the PREMIER LEAGUE. on this visit, however, i did the right thing and bought my ticket from brighton and hove albion and went as an away supporter.

i stayed at a charming old hotel around the corner from the train station, and travelled out the stadium on a local service that cost £1.80 return.

after my experience at chelsea, the atmosphere here was much more laid back. it was nice to see that the stewards were actually supporters themselves, and were engaged in the match rather than looking for beach-balls to deflate and half hoping for trouble to kick-off. with the visiting team playing a brilliant rear-guard action, and sealing the victory with a late goal on the counter-attack, it was a really enjoyable way to spend a tuesday evening.

Liverpool F.C. 0-2 WBA

match text commentary

after a couple of days back home with me mum, it was time for the highlight of the trip: an overnight excursion to watch football in the midlands.

i had done this a few times before. that is, i had made the journey leaving the day before and taking in an extra match on the eve of going to the hawthorns. it is a tradition that began out of necessity when west brom's PREMIER LEAGUE fixtures with wolves were played on the sunday with a noon kick-off, at the behest of the west midlands police. this meant that i would have to travel to birmingham a day early anyway. so what better way to pass the time than checking out other football grounds?

having been to leicester city, walsall and birmingham city on previous trips to see the albion, i now found myself spending a cold friday night in nottingham. i have always wanted to go to meadow lane, and i felt a connection there that i almost never feel when going to a new ground.

needing to use the facilities, i found a bar just inside the grounds of the stadium. truthfully, it looked more like a workingman's club or legion hall than it did a pub, and i doubt if anyone inside was younger than sixty. it was an environment that appeared timeless where life had changed little in the last thirty or forty years. as i looked around the brightly over-lit room, with its ancient, yellowing white walls, marked by the odd outdated event poster, i couldn't help but wonder if there if would be a next generation of supporters who would one day be there to take their place. in a world of SKYsports and ESPN broadcasts that show top-flight domestic and european games, it's hard to imagine football's traditional working class environments surviving past the next couple of decades.

notts county's opponents were bottom of the league strugglers, bury f.c., who had brought perhaps two or three hundred supporters down from lancashire with them. while they were certainly vocal enough for their small numbers, the jimmy sirrel stand appeared near empty, belying the fact that there was a reasonable gate (for a televised LEAGUE ONE match on a cold friday night) of nearly six-thousand.

while notts were clearly the more skilled side in possession, they lacked any luck or ability to finish, and a defensive mistake gave the visitors an early one-nil lead that they carried through half-time. this, of course, prompted some good old fashioned midlands-style moaning and groaning over a smoke in the parking lot at the break. the conversation was thick with threats of not renewing seasons tickets for next year, complaints about ticket prices, questioning the intentions of the board and their immediate ambition (or lack thereof)... all the cliché pronouncements heard regularly in pubs across the midlands.

however, with just over 12 minutes gone in the second-half, the magpies hit back with 3 goals in the space of 7 minutes and ran out 4-1 winners on the night.

WBA 2-1 Sunderland A.F.C.

match text commentary

so, after a night in nottingham, i strolled down to the station and was at new street a good 2 hours ahead of kick-off.

this was my 11th trip to the hawthorns, and i am well familiar, at this point, with navigating the city centre and catching the local train from snow hill.

i have had extraordinarily good luck, as i have only seen the baggies lose once in all my trips to the hawthorns. of course, that was a christmas time fixture with blackburn rovers, when they were in the middle of their annual poor run of form, that traditionally starts in novemeber/december and carries through january/february. the only other occasion that i have been to the hawthorns that did not result in a victory was the re-scheduled fixture when carlos vela scored the equalizer in injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw with wolves and kicked off an 8 match unbeaten run under then new head coach, roy hodgson. despite my family and friends joking about my status as "good-luck talisman" for the baggies, the truth is, that i target matches that i think will be competitive and the baggies have a good chance of winning. i mean, i would just hate to travel the 3000 miles to see my team lose to the likes of manchester united or arsenal!

this was the second year in a row that i've been to the home fixture with sunderland. last year's game was without a doubt the baggies best overall performance of the year - and that includes the 5-1 win at the molineaux. this year's corresponding fixture wasn't in the same class, but the baggies were still good enough to hang on after going two-nil up (thanks to romelu lukaku) , before conceding a lone goal to the excellent stéphane sessègnon late on, for the final result of 2-1.

the big disappointment this year was my inability to get into the club shop. since the club's promotion, match day business has been picking up to such a degree that i would have needed to get there at least an hour and a half before kick off to get in a decent session of shopping for shirts and souvenirs. as it was, i had to line up for 15 minutes just to get in the door. however, i couldn't move and didn't get 15 feet past the entrance before i gave up, turned around and just got the hell out of there. it had changed so much since my first visit to the hawthorns for a match with plymouth argyle, that i thought, i'll do my shopping online and pay the shipping charges as long as it's like this, thanks!

of course, i really miss being in the same division with wolves, and i think that there is something irrational about a baggies supporter cheering the misfortunes of the dingles at the bottom of the CHAMPIONSHIP. i really miss the wolves fixtures at the hawthorns, and i hope to get a chance to travel to the molineaux for the derby one day. albion/wolves is the best rivalry in english football, and i really enjoyed the heightened intensity of these particular fixtures. i, for one, wish wolves only success until we're back in the same division.


my adventure that had begun at stamford bridge in such grand and grim fashion, ended rather modestly on a tuesday night at the broadfield stadium in crawley watching brentford away. i was staying at a hotel out near gatwick airport and crawley is only a 10 minute train ride south. i had gone out to the airport a day early in order to travel down and watch the match on tuesday, thus giving myself an extra day in london before having to leave on thursday morning.

in terms of a facility, crawley is a club that has come up into the FOOTBALL LEAGUE too quickly. they play in a quintessentially poor non-league stadium and employ an over-zealous security staff. it's not a particularly good place to watch football either. the designated seating for away supporters has the poorest sight-lines i have ever encountered at a professional ground.

there was 1500 travelling bee's fans that night, and it really felt like the staff was overwhelmed. i still haven't found out what happened, but during the break at half-time, the away supporters lounge was locked down, and the blue-coated "response" team moved in. there was much remonstrating and chanting from the travelling brentford support. i even witnessed an incident where a bee's supporter was having a verbal stand-off with one of the response team. the blue-jacketed steward then knocked a bottle of coca-cola out of his hand, which was the signal to strong-arm him out of the stadium, on the pretext that he had thrown it at them.

they wouldn't let us out into the parking lot to smoke, which i've only ever seen at much bigger clubs where the exits are more difficult to police. christ! we all still went out for a smoke during the half-time break at cardiff city stadium!

quite comically - and on the way in, a lone female steward was trying to pat down an entire crowd of travelling brentford supporters. eventually, most of us just got tired of waiting and walked around her and went through the turnstile.

brentford got their season back on track with a 2-1 win and now look dead certs for at least the play-offs this year. although, i have to say that i think in terms of actual promotion, they're probably a year or two early for anything but a struggle in the CHAMPIONSHIP. still, you've got to begin improvement and upward mobility somewhere, and uwe rösler has done a brilliant job whatever happens.

of course, i will be back to check on things all over again in october.

Chelsea F.C. 2-1 WBA

match text commentary


this is the kind of match that makes me want to declare and testify to the worst and most egregious of blasphemies: sometimes, i hate the premier league and wish that...

don't get me wrong. i mean, i was perfectly thrilled when we beat arsenal at the emirates. i jumped out of my seat singing psalm 23 at the top of my lungs when simon cox equalized at white-hart lane, putting the baggies on 40 points and all but beyond any fears of relegation.

i travelled three-thousand miles and was witness to the most important goal of the season at the hawthorns, when carlos vela equalized in injury time against wolves to set the albion on an eight game unbeaten run that ultimately lead to their survival, and a respectable mid-table finish in the all mighty, bloody barclay's premier league.

for the baggies this was the best league finish in nearly 30 years and certainly gives us a reason to start dreaming a little of european nights returning to the hawthorns with all the glamour and glory that that entails.

not to mention, i get to see my beloved baggies every week on TV - if not live, then at least in repeat at sometime over the course of the following week.

however, the financial gap at the top of the league is just too much of a weight to bear in order to be competitive, and the re-structuring of a successful team in the football league to one that can survive for more than five years in the premiership is often an out and out gamble - sometimes with the very existence of the club.





this was the second week in a row that the albion have had to play champions league opposition, the second week in a row that they have lost a close game late on by a score of 2-1, and the second week in a row where they did not get some calls from the referee that they really should have... frustrating stuff. especially when you consider that the margin of skill between a team like west bromwich albion and the big clubs is marginal, while the cost of maintaining that margin is so exorbitant as to be preposterous. fernando torres cost more than 3 times as much as the entire albion starting eleven. that's 20 times what peter odemwingie cost the baggies when he signed initially.

will a modest or large community based club ever win the league again? never in your life. in the mid-1970s, clubs like derby county, norwich city, west brom, nottingham forest and QPR were all variously competitive top 5 clubs, and english football still produced surprises and miracles. nowadays, the premier league has pretty much outlawed miracles. it's just not good business.





last week was a disappointment at home, this week it was away.

the baggies took the lead against chelsea in the 4th minute on shane long's second goal in as many games, and while chelsea had the bulk of possession, it was the albion who were dictating the pace of the game and making good use of the break. long worked tirelessly up front, along with colourful striker, somen tchoyi, and the baggies could well have been another goal ahead at the break.

roy hodgson went with the same starting eleven, and the same tactical set-up as he had played against manchester united at the hawthorns. the gaffer seems very much committed to a two striker system - and it looks that he intends to use this system both home and away.

while the home side had the better of the possession - and especially for large chunks of the second half - the baggies were the better and more organized side throughout the first 45-minutes.

chris brunt has adapted to hodgson's style of football, and is no longer distracted by having taken the captaincy. with two defensive midfielders, in the pairing of paul scharner and youssouf mulumbu - and with brunt and james morrison covering the wings - the gaffer has instituted a form of 4-4-2 that is able to maintain a good defensive shape and compete successfully with teams playing 4-5-1, who would tend to have the advantage in midfield.





the baggies were creating all the early chances and it was brunt moving into a central attacking position that was making it happen. paul scharner got on the end of a brilliant through ball from brunt, forcing chelsea goalie, hilario, into making a sharp save at the near post. brunt then played in a ball that put shane long and somen tchoyi in behind the chelsea back four, and it would have been 2-0 save for long's poor final ball.

while they won't have been the first team to come to stamford bridge and spend long periods of defending in the second-half, the baggies were unlucky - just as they had been against manchester united - not to have hung on for the point. they did create several opportunities to equalize, as well, the best chance falling to peter odemwingie. however, his well struck volley on a ball played to the far post was solidly dealt with by hilario.

while there were questions to be asked about the two chelsea goals as far as the baggies defenders were concerned, these were isolated passages of football in what was otherwise a really good defensive performance overall.

early on after the restart, nickey shorey got caught out and and lost the ball to ramires inside the baggies half. carrying the play into the west brom penalty area, and with the baggies defenders now on the back foot, the brazilian midfielder played a ball which eventually fell for nicolas anelka, who squeezed in an effort at the far post after taking an unfortunate deflection off jonas olsson and leaving ben foster no chance to make the save.

the winning goal came late on and just when it looked as though the baggies had weathered the worst of it and ridden out a full-on chelsea onslaught for a solid fifteen-twenty minutes, and were looking good to hang on for the draw.

however, a momentary lapse and some indecisive defending allowed jose bosingwa to carry the ball into a dangerous area down the right flank and put a low, hard cross in to the box. florent malouda met the ball at the far post to knock it home and put the blues in the lead for the first time in the match.





peter odemwingie, last year's top-scorer at the hawthorns, came on with 15 minutes left in the game. the nigerian striker not only came close to scoring, but also had a shout for what looked a stonewall penalty, when he was flagrantly hauled over in front of the londoners' goal with just seconds of injury time left to play.

the baggies have now put in two quality performances against champions league opposition, and deserve better than to be left with no points. however, a rough start like this might be the tonic needed to inspire more competitive performances against their mid-table contemporaries. last season, the baggies beat arsenal at the emirates, liverpool at home and were the only team in the league to take any points from old trafford. however, they lost twice to blackburn rovers, and were unable to take more than a single point each from bolton, wigan, stoke and wolves. while sets of home and away draws was all they could manage against the likes of west ham and tottenham.

while there is little doubt that striker, shane long, and goalie, ben foster, have brought added quality to the team, the pundits will be forgiving of the baggies this year in the name of "second-season-syndrome". however, they have managed to keep the core squad together once again and there has been much to take heart from in these two opening performances. the albion faithful, no doubt, will be hoping for a little bit more than just survival in the top-flight.

as these first two matches have been good performances with poor results, it's essential that the baggies shrug it off and get at least a point next week against stoke city. the premier league can be an unforgiving environment. there are no easy games and it's all too quick and easy to fall into a rut, not get results and just get stuck. at this point, the quicker the baggies get their first point (or points), the better.