Towards a Stranglehold on 8th

WBA 1-2 Arsenal F.C.

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as the season draws to a close, and we head into the last six games of the current campaign, there's one real goal (beyond the stated target of reaching a 50 point tally in the league) that the baggies can aspire to: that is to finish the season in 8th place. they have occupied this spot in the table for a number of weeks now and if they can maintain their form and take the necessary points available from their remaining fixtures, that is almost certainly where they will finish.

it may sound somewhat absurd to say so, but for a side like west bromwich albion, this would actually be a more significant accomplishment than winning the league would be for a club like manchester united, where claiming the premiership title has become an annual expectation.


at this particular moment in time, this is about as well as the baggies could do in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE. to be fair, there are really no teams that currently sit ahead of the baggies in the table that don't belong there (i.e. liverpool, everton, tottenham etc.); and, with their status as a relatively new arrival to the top-flight, their present gate revenues, merchandising, budget, and the quality of players that are available to a club of their size, to finish anywhere in the top half of the table is, in all practical terms, a remarkable achievement.

West Ham Utd. 3-1 WBA

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west brom will finish their season fighting to stay ahead of swansea city, and establish themselves as the top "second grade" team in the country. in light of the relatively poor form of some of the larger (and richer) clubs like newcastle, aston villa and sunderland, that is what an 8th place finish in the league would represent this year.

in fact, the recent loss to a ten-man arsenal side probably ended the chance of overtaking liverpool (in 7th), as well as a missed opportunity at widening the gap between themselves and swansea, who sit 9th in the table. from their performance in the second-half - and their absolute battering of the north londoners for the last half-hour - the baggies should probably have won this by at least a goal. but, as my mother observed on a visit to twerton park after the first 15 minutes of a bath city home game:

"i should think a goal is jolly hard to get!"

it is one of the hard facts of football, and a goal is sometimes just too jolly hard to get!


while the baggies put in a good performance, and worked hard to press home their numerical advantage at home to the gunners, they were really quite poor in their previous fixture away to west ham. in fact, the match at upton park was one of only a handful of truly weak performances on the season, and a game where west brom really showed almost nothing in the way of quality football until the last ten minutes. graham dorrans' penalty brought the team to life, and some good attacking in the last few minutes saw the baggies create a couple of scoring opportunities that might have seen the game turn. however, poor marking on set plays and the hammers' peculiarly skilful long-ball game was beyond the baggies on the day.

Stoke City F.C. 0-0 WBA

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one of a couple of things that has stood out this season is the lack of success that the baggies have had against the london sides. indeed, while they did manage the double over QPR, west brom have only taken 5 additional points of a possible 30 on offer against teams from the capital. the other big let down has been the lack of quality - on all counts - of the local derbies.

both fixtures with the villa have seemed rather listless - especially when you compare these games with the atmosphere of the baggies/wolves matches of the last few years - and despite of the fact that both sides scored twice in the match at the hawthorns, it still never found the kind of intensity that you'd hope for in one of the oldest and most historically significant derby matches in world football. meanwhile, both games with stoke city - which once counted as a "staffordshire derby" - have been an absolute joke.

tony pulis, who seems to me an absolutely joyless man - as well as a ruthless and unpleasant manager - appears to favour a brand of football that features 9 defenders with a solitary striker and bypasses the idea of a midfield altogether.


in fact, late on in their most recent match against the baggies - a dreary 0-0 draw at the britannia stadium - a long, rather aimless clearance by one of the potters' defenders that went into touch had my brother and i in hysterics. it was a bit of play that rather looked more like a fly-half kicking for field position than something you would expect in a game of association football. stoke, who have found relative success over the last few seasons in the top-flight, play some of the most miserably dull football i've ever seen.

WBA 2-1 Swansea City A.F.C.

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despite the baggies' continuing incremental improvement every year for the last decade, it will still require several more seasons - with an increase in stadium capacity and some scrupulously intelligent use of TV revenues - before the albion will be able to harbour any serious aspirations of european qualification or have a big enough squad for a successful cup run. even then, the opportunities will be fleeting.


as long as the current structure of the PREMIER LEAGUE persists, a side like west brom will, in effect, be starting each season in the top-flight from scratch. by this, i mean, they will perpetually need to scramble every summer to sign indispensable players on an annual basis. where would we have been this last few seasons without peter odemwingie or romelu lukaku? the latter being a loan signing from chelsea; and odemwingie, a goal scoring talent who was surprisingly unpopular with his home fans as a top-flight player in russia. without these kind of signings, the team would run the risk of not having a consistently competitive PREMIER LEAGUE squad.

at the end of the day, aiming for the all important "40 point" cushion, hanging on to the core of the team (in the likes of players like olsson, mcauley, brunt, morrison, long and mulumbu), acquiring important loan signings, maintaining inventive and cosmopolitan scouting networks, as well as rebuilding and/or expansion of the west stand (or so i've read), are all going to have to remain the primary focus points for the club over the next few years.

Chelsea F.C. 1-0 WBA

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we know that this year is already a success, insofar as relegation/survival hasn't been a concern at any point of the current campaign - and while things have been a bit more inconsistent in the second-half of the season, the first couple of months gave us all some hope, if not expectation, of a long stay in the top-flight and perhaps, one day even playing again in europe.


we have to remember, the baggies were on the verge of going top of the league when they ran smack into a run of poor results, starting with the away fixture against swansea at the end of november.

it was really too good to be true, and it had to end somewhere. since then, results and performance have been just a bit patchy. however, west brom have been consistent enough in picking up needed points at crucial moments and haven't lost any ground since settling in around 7th or 8th place. as long they keep on getting the required results - and while they can't quite catch liverpool anymore - the baggies will stay ahead of swansea in the battle for 8th, and have earned the right to call themselves "the best of the rest" in england's top-flight for the 2012-13 season.

Too Much Too Soon?

Swansea City A.F.C. 3-1 WBA

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just as with last year's visit to the liberty stadium, the baggies conceded 3 goals and turned in what was undoubtedly their worst performance to date - and that was just the first 10 minutes!

it was a hard reminder of how difficult life in the world's top league can be and has set down a real challenge to the team's character.

to be fair, it won't seem such a bad result if they can go back to the hawthorns and get a result from the game with stoke on saturday. however - and as west bromwich albion supporters - we all know not to expect too much from a game with stoke city. this is a historically hard fixture for the baggies, with the potters being one of west brom's true bogey sides.

this was only the baggies' fourth loss of the season and only their second truly poor performance, having lost 3-0 to fulham earlier in the season. in a funny way, this loss to the swans puts the earlier loss to the cottagers into a clearer perspective and looking back on their visit to the west london should be a real lesson for steve clarke.



it has been west brom's style to defend with the back four playing in a fairly deep position. for the most part, it has worked well for them and is an essential component in the successful counter-attacking play that the baggies have employed this season. however, it has shown to be vulnerable when playing against an in form attacking side - especially when playing possession through the midfield - and the gaffer was astute in abandoning this and pushing the back four up to hold a much higher line in the second half. but by then the damage was already done.

the baggies pulled a goal back just on half-time through the effort and skills of chris brunt and romelu lukaku. brunt delivered a good ball on a corner kick in the dying seconds of the first half which fell for lukaku to smash home. it was as simple as that.

to their credit, the baggies adjusted well enough and were the better side for most of the second-half, but without the luck of the bounce and a poor performance from peter odemwingie, the goal that they needed to get back in the game never materialized.

as poor as the baggies were for the first half, swansea's crisp, quick passing game deserves some credit. to be fair, the home side came out and played with a level of skill and intensity that was as good as any football that the PREMIER LEAGUE has produced this year.

Sunderland A.F.C. 2-4 WBA

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the baggies continued their habit of breaking age-old hoodoos - as well as posting what was their second away victory of the season - by winning four games on the spin for the first time since the inception of the PREMIER LEAGUE.

sunderland is a side that is in a bit of a crisis at the moment. they are fairly sound defensively - as one would expect from a martin o'neill side - and the counter-attacking gambit that the baggie have used to great effect since the beginning of the season was never going to work at the stadium of light. but with the black cats having trouble creating scoring opportunities - and an even tougher time finding goals - this is a fixture that one would fully expect the baggies to go looking for full-points from.



while zoltan gera initially put the albion in front just on the half-hour mark, it was shane long's persistence that gave them real control of this encounter. chasing down a ball that most players would've given up on, the irish striker took full advantage when simon mignolet was unable to control chris brunt's through ball that should've been no more than routine cover. but long followed up, challenged the belgian goalie and walked the ball into the sunderland net for the goal from which martin o'neill's side would never really recover.

romelu lukaku scored the third baggies' goal from the penalty spot after liam ridgewell was fouled in the box.

while sunderland did get back into the game with a late goal that put the scoreline at 3-2, their push forward to find the equalizer left them open at the back and marc antoine fortuné made no mistake when the opportunity to restore the two goal lead that west brom had held for long parts of the match opened up for him on another baggies' counter attack. with only simon mignolet to beat, the french striker deftly curled the ball in at the far post to give the score-line its proper gloss. it was no more than west brom deserved.

WBA 2-1 Chelsea F.C.

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this was a fixture that you might have written off at the beginning of the season, but with the start that the albion have made in the league this year, they should be starting to believe that there's no such thing as "writing off" a game. i would never pretend that the baggies were the superior team on the day, or that there weren't periods - especially in the second-half - where chelsea weren't the better side and having the better of the play; but steve clarke is proving to be a masterful tactician, showing that he knows how and when to use his resources to best effect.

it's no secret that roy hodgson organized the baggies to be a very good defensive side. steve clarke has built on that foundation that has seen a more complete vision of football being played at the hawthorns, and tactics to deal with anything that the PREMIER LEAGUE can throw up. the baggies have now won this fixture two years running and deservedly so.

shane long put the baggies ahead just before the 10 minute mark, when james morrison played a perfect cross for the irish striker to head home in the 9th minute of the game. eden hazard equalized from a similar play just a little over 5 minutes before half-time on a ball played across the albion goal by cesar azpilicueta.


fernando torres was withdrawn before half-time, having looked listless and been largely ineffectual. especially when compared to the highly effective, hard-working and skilled play of shane long. daniel sturridge replaced torres and the chelsea attack improved a great deal. however, both the chelsea striker and winger, victor moses had crucial efforts thwarted by an in form boaz myhill, whose sharp shot-stopping has eased the problem of having ben foster out injured. a second late strike by sturridge flashed dramatically across the face of goal but went wide as the baggies held on for the win.

Swansea City A.F.C 3-0 WBA

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while i don't want to take anything away from what was a wonderfully free flowing and cavalier performance by swans, this was otherwise total crap... not worth writing about, other than to say that baggies fans deserve better than this. this was so bad that i almost wished i supported blues... if you can imagine that?!?!





in fact, i don't think i can remember a performance this bad - not even crystal palace at home in the championship two years ago was quite as bad!

this year, birmingham city are selling jerseys with the option of not having the advertising logo on it, and (for team player audio/video service subscribers) they have much more extensive video content, including "classic matches" and video tributes to club heroes in the archives. oh yeah, and city also have an online ticketing system that allows you to print tickets at home... all pretty cool stuff that i wish was available on the albion website.

still... albion 'til i die! but nothing to be proud of today...

Notes on a Winning Streak (part 2)

Swansea City 0-2 WBA

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there is a kind of sameness to football stadiums nowadays. where highbury, loftus road, upton park and stamford bridge of the 1970s were distinctly different places, each with its own character and every stadium around the country had its own unique qualities, the liberty stadium reminded me of a three-quarter size, claustrophobic hawthorns with a surprisingly small washroom facility. the colours may vary, as well as some of the smaller details, but it seemed to me that the modern football ground is now just a variation on an architectural theme.

the security - and in special regards to tickets and match admission - was much tighter and strictly run than at the hawthorns. where match-day admission is available to away supporters for west brom home games, you can only gain entrance to the liberty stadium through purchasing tickets from your club of origin - and visiting supporters are limited to one ticket per membership. there are no match-day ticket sales for the visitors end either.

also - and unlike at the hawthorns - the entire north stand is designated as the visitors end, and is accessed only by the most remote and isolated of all the park's entrances. passing through two seperate gates in the space of about 50 yards under the watchful eye of several swansea stewards, who are required to ask if you are indeed a supporter of the visiting club - the segregation of home and away supporters is much more rigorous than at the hawthorns.

this was my first away match as a baggies supporter and i felt as if i had been thrown into the cauldron of seething football lunacy.



when i go to the hawthorns i sit in the upper tier of the east stand. it's generally more laid back, family-oriented and probably the best place to actually watch football from in the whole place. here in south wales - and much as i had expected - the atmosphere among the traveling albion faithful was much closer to that of the smethwick end home supporters corner than anything else.

while it is an indispensable and necessary component in regards to the atmosphere of live football, i'm not much one for continuous singing and chanting, and i think it can actually be a terrible distraction to watching the match. for example, there was a fellow sitting a few rows in front of me whose continuous efforts to get a chant or song going required a constant, long-distance conversation with one of his mates sitting about fifteen rows back and in the next block of seats over. he was so engaged in this activity that i'm sure he actually only saw about half the match. still and all, i appreciate that someone's got to do it.

"get on the bawl, moore, y'lazy fookin' bastid'!!!" a guy in front of me yelled in vain frustration at the albion's starting striker.

"that's it," the guy next to me reacted sarcastically, "let's get behind the club!!!"

having drawn an ugly glare in response to his comment he waved his hands in front of him to diffuse any escalation of hostility.

"just kiddin', mate," he quickly explained, "just kiddin'!"

swansea, while having no ability to finish, are the only team that i've seen this year to really badly outplay the baggies in terms of extensive possession, and only their lack of a goal scorer had kept the teams level at half-time. the swansea mid-field was excellent and held the ball for long periods of time during a first-half where both youssouf mulumbu and graham dorrans were struggling badly with their first touch and the most rudimentary ball control seemed to elude them. scott carson looked more than a bit shaky through being dangerously indecisive about coming off his line for the ball on a couple of potentially critical occasions, and he was lucky enough when a swansea cross into the box came directly back off his near post and fell safely for the baggies to clear.



the best player for the albion on the night was probably ben watson. while far from having an exceptional game, the on-loan wigan midfielder was much less tentative both on and off the ball than any of the the rest of the visiting team, and was the only albion player who was consistently able to control the ball and get any kind of move started for the baggies.

the second half was better stuff from the albion, but it was a match which was like one of those long nights in europe when both teams are forced into shutting up shop early and hoping for the one bit of chance needed to snatch a single goal, and then play to hang on for the final whistle. almost the entire game was played in the middle of the park with neither team exhibiting any incisive build-up in the final third.

i really couldn't see a goal coming in this one, and i doubt that anyone else present at the liberty stadium could imagine a winner emerging here either. however, and in much the same fashion as on the previous saturday, giles barnes, who had come on as substitute for chris brunt, made a direct run at the swans penalty area, then cutting in from the left flank, the midfielder went down and a penalty was subsequently awarded.

the west brom supporters, all seated behind the swansea goal instinctively went mad with delight. unlike the penalty on saturday, where i think everybody knew it had been a case of winner's luck, this was a stonewall penalty. although the TV replay was less convincing, when viewed from the perspective behind the goal in the liberty stadium's north stand, there was no doubt that angel rangel had clipped barnes with his right knee and at very least given the albion midfielder an opportunity to go down and win the spot kick.



graham dorrans summarily put the baggies ahead from the spot and with only 12 minutes remaining it wasn't long before the swans fans started making for the exits. i spread my arms wide and sang psalm 23 along with the other several odd-thousand albion supporters who'd made their way down from the midlands to south wales that evening.

for the baggies, however, there was one more turn to redeem what had otherwise been a most unmemorable and uninspired game of football.

as swansea went forward in an attempt to find an equalizer, the albion were left an opportunity to counter-attack, and in the 89th minute ishmael miller found himself with enough space deep down the right-wing with a chance to run the ball straight at goal from an acute angle. with everyone anticipating and getting ready to defend on the goal-line, miller pushed the ball to the outside and around the sprawling swans keeper, maintained possession and composure before ultimately burying it in the back of the net for a goal that exhibited a cool, mature sense of patience and wonderful individual skills.

happy enough with the victory - and without a taxi in sight - i walked back to the hotel confidently musing at how the baggies were now going to beat preston north end on saturday.

WBA 0-1 Swansea City F.C.

this was a bad day all around. my internet was not working for much of the match, and i had to keep tabs on the game through the BBC live text commentary when i was able to.

i caught the first fifteen minutes and the last five of the first half on ALBION RADIO; then i could only connect for the last fifteen minutes of the game.

live text replay

with city coming to the hawthorns, this was the toughest match and the most in-form performance of any team that the baggies have had to deal with thus far this year - including the opener against newcastle. the albion were lucky enough on the day to hang on to first place, by virtue of the toon's loss to scunthorpe - so thank god for life in the championship! however, this can't go on without seeing an eventual downward movement in the standings.



the baggies have now dropped 11 out of the last 15 points available.

while no one played particularly well at all yesterday, i was still expecting one of the strikers to break out and start scoring. in light of this, yesterday's loss was doubly ironic.

the arrival of roberto di matteo saw countless individuals on the team re-vitalized and the new gaffer seems to know how to use his players better than tony mowbray did. both luke moore and craig beattie started out the season looking completely different players to last year. moore scored a couple of goals just for fun, and beattie really found his touch in the cup games, putting in 2 real quality goals against rotherham.



since then, moore has not been able to find his form following a short recurring injury, and beattie was sold to swansea city the day after the cup game against rotherham. roman bednar has not scored since the match away to middlesbrough. simon cox has still to open his league goals account, and he needs more opportunity as a starter. while chris wood has been doing a good job at holding up the ball and setting up goals, he still has only scored once on the season.

the double irony of yesterday's loss is that craig beattie, who scored the winning goal for swansea, is still one of albion's top scoring strikers on the year. the problem could not have been illustrated more clearly nor the reality of the moment more stark.

i found it disappointing when they sold beattie, as he was playing well and would've been useful outside his role as a starter for cup games; but i did not think it would have an impact on the club's form. today it appears to reflect a minor disaster.