A Trio of Victories!!!

WBA 1-0 Chelsea F.C.

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i left for england on the evening of february the 12th. the baggies had demolished wolves at the molineux (1-5) earlier in the day and i knew that this would go a long way towards banishing the ugly atmosphere that has been present at the hawthorns since the baggies' home loss to wigan on the 10th of december.

barring a series of unlikely disasters there will indeed be an unprecedented third consecutive season of PREMIER LEAGUE football at the hawthorns. of course, this brings up concerns over next year's goals and expectations; but for the moment, i'm just going to enjoy the glory and be grateful for the fact that my last visit of the season was a 4-0 victory over sunderland and the first home win since november 19th.

it has taken a decade to achieve, but i hope that chairman, jeremy peace, feels at least some vindication for his oft-criticized financial practices at the club. mr. peace has always understood that the organization needs to be balanced, and that incremental improvements over a long period of time are the only way that a club of the size and resource of west bromwich albion is going to get anywhere in terms of establishing itself as a top-flight side. i will countenance no more supporter criticism as to the chairman's perceived lack of ambition - it's simply not true.





personally, i think jeremy peace is a brilliant chairman, and one of the few people who's figured out a way to find long term success within the top 25 teams in the country. that is, when the baggies have been relegated, the set-up has been in place to keep most of the important players at the club and ensures that they can challenge for promotion. likewise, each time the albion have gone into a new season in the top-flight, it has always been an improved side on the previous campaign. i guarantee that jeremy peace has the greatest of ambitions for west bromwich albion football club. but in a culture where expectations have to be met instantly, the qualities of patience, prudence, careful management and intelligence are more vice than virtue.

jeremy peace talks to BBC Late Kick-Off (March 2010)

WBA 4-0 Sunderland A.F.C.

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in yet another season of exorcizing ghosts of top-flight fixtures past, the baggies have won three games on the spin for what is only the second time as a PREMIER LEAGUE side. more importantly, they beat chelsea - one of the biggest teams in the country - for the first time in 32 years.

the most significant thing about the baggies current string of results is that they've done it largely without chris brunt and shane long - perhaps their two best players.

however, peter odemwingie has found goal-scoring form where most pundits believed he wouldn't. marc-antoine fortune is unrecognisable to the player who was originally brought in as an emergency loan replacement for ishmael miller and ended up at celtic for the 2010-11 season before returning to the hawthorns. the french striker had recently spent some time on loan at doncaster rovers and has returned to B71 looking the very model of the modern centre-forward - a player transformed.





after a shaky start to the seaon, james morrison has been brilliant in his role as attacking mid-fielder; and last minute january signing, keith andrews, has been a revelation partnering youssouf mulumbu in the holding mid-field position and has scored goals against both wolves and sunderland.

the baggies have also looked good defensively as of late. two clean sheets back-to-back and 225 minutes of football (and counting) without having conceded a goal. the centre-halves have been outstanding. jonas olsson and gareth mcauley might be the best pair of defenders to ever play in a west brom jersey. certainly they are the best centre-halves since the days of john wile and alistair robertson, and both have added important goals to their heroic shot blocking and fearless tackling. ben foster hasn't seemed like he's actually had a lot to do in these few games, but has come up big when needed and his quick distribution of the ball has led directly to scoring opportunities and goals.

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. 1-5 WBA

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black country derbies are always a bit of a drag for me. if i'm here in toronto, i am required to get up a 6 AM to catch what is usually a noon kick-off on the sunday; and if i'm in england, i have to travel to birmingham on the day before and take a hotel room for the night. last year i went to st. andrews to watch blues play sheffield wedneday in an FA CUP replay as a way of killing time on the eve of the big match; and this last october i went to watch walsall play preston in the league.

as i was travelling to england that night, waking up at 6 AM was less of a chore than usual and worth the effort ten times over.

this was quite an unbelievable game of football and one that the baggies really needed to win in order to change the mood at the hawthorns. it may have been the most important match of the current campaign; we will only know once the season is over. but just as wolves used their home victory over west brom last year as a spring-board to their successful run for survival, the baggies used this away win as a way to go back to the hawthorns with momentum and confidence and get the home support behind them as they begin the push for a mid-table finish.





it was also important to bring the home faithful onside and get them behind the manager. roy hodgson has been coming under a certain amount of attack in various online forums since the baggies loss to wigan kicked off a string of poor results at home. there has been criticism of everything from his age to his "negative" footballing tactics. these same tactics have come to be an important part of the baggies current form and the gaffer now looks like a footballing genius. his sometimes rigid defensive formations have become integral to how the baggies play - and will need to keep playing, in order to finish with the kind of season we had all hoped for (and perhaps expected) since the outset of the campaign.

WBA 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

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this was sweet fare for the hawthorns crowd, and the first home win of the season.

while this was my first trip to the hawthorns this year - and my eighth visit in the last three seasons - it was, without a doubt, the most electric atmosphere i have yet encountered when attending football at the hawthorns. for the first time i could really feel what being in the premier league actually means for a club like west bromwich albion.

i am not always a fan of the top-flight and how it has created such a huge gap between the top four or five clubs and everyone else, but i have to admit that there is a level of intensity to being in the premier league that one cannot ignore. competing in the top-flight lends you a special status as every week you are seen on TV and known to football fans all over the world. it is a league where every game is of international importance - and for the baggies, they don't come more important than this one.

thankfully, roy hodgson has wisely continued to ignore all the blather about tactical formation and did just what he should have: field the most in-form individual players - those who are best adapted to the gaffer's system and those who understand his footballing vision.





all in all hodgson made four changes from the team that had drawn away to sunderland and home to fulham before the international break. nicky shorey - being off-form as of late, was replaced by billy jones at left-back. graham dorrans, james morrison and peter odemwingie were all on the bench, as somen tchoyi, jerome thomas and paul scharner all took a place in the starting eleven.

wolves started the match with a couple of incisive attacks down the albion flanks, testing albion goalie, ben foster, early on and forcing a finger-tip save that flashed across the face of the baggies goal on a shot from adam hammill. the wolves midfielder would have a similar and even better chance in the second half which would again be saved by foster and equally in similar fashion. however - and with hodgson's genius for defense and counter-attack - the more wolves pressed the baggies back line, the more opportunity opened up for the albion through the excellent forward play of shane long.

the republic of ireland international chased balls down the wings with a pace that surprised even the hawthorns faithful. his running of the channels was excellent and the young striker terrorized both wolves centre-backs, roger johnson and cristophe berra, all afternoon. he was confident on the ball and the quality of his hold-up play was evident from early on.

long served an early warning of intent when he took a long ball on the centre-line cleared from the back by chris brunt. making a good run just inside the opposition half, but having no immediate support, the albion forward held the ball up, took on the wolves defenders and moved himself into a position for an accurate but ultimately speculative long-range strike at goal. with nothing else on, he had made something happen.

i don't really know what to say about somen tchoyi... the one inescapable truth is that the baggies seem to play better when he's on the pitch. watching him play just makes you laugh - one way or the other. he doesn't much like to pass the ball; that's one thing. but there is a tenacious quality to his play. even when he's held onto the ball too long and the opportunity to pass has been cut off, he fights his way forward until he finds space or is knocked off the ball completely. he's not everybody's favourite, and maybe it's just the sense of fun that he brings to the occasion, but the baggies are most definitely a better team when he's in the side.





because he is a generally unorthodox player it's easy to underestimate tchoyi, but his unwillingness to give up the football and his play around the edge of the box lead directly to brunt's opening goal. he is much more useful than he first appears, and always looked dangerous throughout the match with his possession and holding up the ball on the periphery of the penalty area.

of course, ensuing results will form the final judgement on the season - and as it progresses - but it's safe to say that this match revealed the arguments and discussion as to the team's tactical formation to be largely superficial, and no more than distracting media hype and fodder for discussion on various online message-boards.

what was important here was the quality of the team performance and had little to do with actual tactical formation. it was also a good example of how a traditional 4-4-2 formation is meant to defend. that is, the baggies allowed the wolves some space to play through the midfield, but closed down the forwards then looked to clear and release a front-running hold-up player. the tactic worked brilliantly.

i mean, who would have put money on the baggies producing two clean-sheets back-to-back?

chris brunt worked tirelessly at getting back to defend, and was instrumental in breaking up several wolves attacks down the albion right flank. after some less than inspired performances for the republic of ireland, gareth mcauley was excellent and probably worth baggies "man-of-the-match" and looks to be the centre-half that the baggies have long needed to partner the ever-steady jonas olsson.

with four out of five goals scored within the first five minutes of their previous matches, the albion continued this particular trend when youssouf mulumbu picked up the ball just outside wolves penalty area and spotted albion debutant, billy jones, making a run outside the wolves defenders on the left of the box. jones timed his run to perfection, staying onside and taking mulumbu's pass to the bi-line before squaring the ball back for captain chris brunt to smash home his first league goal of the season in the eighth minute.

wolves missed their best opportunity of the match to draw level within minutes when what looked an absolutely certain goal was saved on the line by jonas olsson. the move started with a low-cross from matt jarvis giving nenad milijas a chance on goal which was parried away by ben foster. the ball fell to kevin doyle at the far post who looked a certainty to score on an open net from point-blank range. but the wolves striker was thwarted as jonas olsson, in a brilliant display of defending, threw himself in the way to block the shot on the line. an audible sigh of relief went through the hawthorns. wolves wouldn't come as close again.





the real brilliance of how roy hodgson sets out to play football lies in his emphasis on defending and use of the counter attack. the back four were resolute, even when under siege from the wolves attack. in fact, it was the wolves attacking that constantly lead to the albion breaking and creating the better of the opportunities throughout the match. it was also a proper display of how to defend from the front, with midfielders dropping back to help cover for their full-backs.

both paul scharner and youssouf mulumbu had opportunities to score just before the break.

with nothing else on, mulumbu's long range effort swerved dangerously and could only be parried away by wolves keeper, wayne hennessy, however no one was in a position to follow up and wolves cleared easily.

scharner's opportunity came on a concise baggies counter-attack, with shane long running the ball down the left channel and cutting the ball back for the austrian whose effort only just curled past the far post.

peter odemwingie came on for somen tchoyi in the 72nd minute, and it didn't take the nigerian international long to shake off the slump that has plagued his season thus far. opportunistically, odemwingie took a sublime back-heel from paul scharner and slotted the ball home to send the hawthorns into relieved delirium.

for the moment, the baggies are champions of the black country.

roy hodgson's albion are starting to look good. things are beginning to gel and i think the team have generally adapted to the way that hodgson has wanted them to play all along. although i wasn't lucky enough to get a ticket for the match at villa park next week, i fully expect an albion victory and another historical bogey to be dispelled forever.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 WBA

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after last week's win over their other great rival, aston villa, just about guaranteed PREMIER LEAGUE football at the hawthorns again next season, this was always going to be made all the tougher a fixture for it. it would be easy to make excuses for this one and even be somewhat cynical, but the baggies played poorly in the first half and conceded early goals on a pair of corner-kicks leaving them 2-0 down within the first half-an-hour. despite rallying and creating several good scoring chances in the second half, it was an insurmountable score-line and wolves' goalie, wayne hennesy, made several key saves that put the issue beyond doubt.



to be fair, the baggies were fielding a squad desperately depleted through injury (as well as paul scharner's single match suspension) and in no need of taking chances or any undue gambles. three key players needed for defending corner-kicks - a particular and conspicuous weakness for the baggies this season - were missing from the line-up, in the likes of paul scharner, chris brunt and steven reid. it almost felt like the fulham away game all over again.

while referee mike dean called a pretty fair game over-all, he was intent on awarding wolves everything in the first few minutes, and didn't look like he would be comfortable until they had a good crack at goal. a second of two fairly soft fouls on the edge of the albion penalty area saw scott carson at full stretch to palm away jamie o'hara's dangerous free-kick. it was on the resulting corner-kick that wolves took the lead.

steven hunt's delivery was well put into a dangerous area and the albion defenders were largely left watching as the ball broke for wolves' front-man, steven fletcher who duly smashed it past a flailing scott carson.



with less than half-an-hour gone, wolves again took advantage of the albion's poor defending on corner-kicks when a similar goal was scored by french midlfielder, adlene guedioura. again wolves lost their markers and terrorized the west brom goal with a largely unchallenged aerial assault which saw guedioura head the ball home for a two-goal lead.

a third goal early in the second-half through a technical error by abdoulaye meite put the game beyond the baggies despite getting a goal back through a peter odemwingie penalty which kicked off the threat of a west brom comeback. at the end of the day, though, it was wolves who both wanted and needed this game more than the baggies did.

i'm sure that roy hodgson learnt a few things about the character of some of his individual players today. abdoulaye meite mis-controlled a routine ball that allowed steven fletcher an easy opportunity to score wolves' third goal. on the back of his unfortunate own-goal against the villa, the technically gifted centre-back - who has otherwise been in sterling form since his re-introduction to the first team - is sometimes prone to mistakes of the most basic nature. likewise, somen tchoyi who is another technically good player, has no idea how to pass a football, and one has to hope he is able to create direct opportunities on goal otherwise his time on the ball can be largely wasted.



simon cox continued to impress and was unlucky not to score. the young striker, who has found a place as a starter in the first team since roy hodgson taking over, looked sure to score only to see his effort saved by a superb reaction from wayne hennessy. somen tchoyi also should have had a goal, but put his opportunity at a free header just inches over the crossbar; while jerome thomas, exhibiting a superb piece of individual skill, sent a screaming shot spinning skyward off the woodwork with an effort that had wayne hennesy well beaten.

it was a rare win for wolves in the black country derby who have been decidedly second-best in games with the albion over the last decade. they were due for the win, wanted it more and needed it to continue their bid for top-flight survival.

it's going to go down to last day. wolves are going to need at least one more win and hope results in other games go their way in order to survive. at the moment, they look like finishing ahead of west ham, wigan, blackpool and birmingham, but you never know what the last two matches will bring, and goal difference is looking like it might come into play in deciding the final relegation places.

i think we all probably want to see the black country derby again next year, and will be hoping that wolves survive for that very reason.

meanwhile, and in all likelihood, the baggies will go into the last day contesting an 11th or 12th place finish with newcastle united away at st. james park.

Tour of the Midlands and Black Country Derby

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

WBA 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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