WBA 3-2 QPR

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my first visit to the hawthorns of the season started out as well as could be hoped. james morrison scored in the 5th minute to give the baggies a lead that would prove unassailable on the afternoon. taking a short pass from youssouf mulumbu just inside rangers' half, shane long broke down the right wing and delivered a perfect cross for morrison to head home from directly in front of goal, leaving QPR goalie, julio cesar, with absolutely no chance.


things just got better as morrison then turned provider. with the baggies gaining possession through pressing the ball in the rangers' half, a series of short passes found the scottish international breaking down the right wing. while his cross was initially cut out by anton ferdinand, the QPR defender was turned awkwardly and unable to control the ball as it rolled out for zoltan gera to smash home from 10 yards out. at this point, the baggies were looking confident and well on course for their 4th straight home win of the season with less than half-an-hour gone.

while they had none of the cohesion or confidence of the baggies - and with nothing really on at that moment - QPR got back into the game with just a little over ten minutes left in the first-half. from a long ball played into the albion box by esteban granero, adel taarabt scored through a wonderful bit of individual skill. taking the ball down with his chest, the rangers' winger turned and hit a screamer on the volley to score what was the first goal that the albion had conceded at home this season.


rangers seemed to have the momentum at the beginning of the second-half with taarabt looking their most dangerous player. the morroccan winger created a good chance in the first minute of the period as he robbed the ball from the feet of baggies right-back, gabriel tamas, but was forced to shoot from too acute an angle and his effort saved by a diving ben foster. taarabt consistently found space down the left flank, but good team defending by the baggies cut out any ball played into a central position and taarabt saw his best efforts come to nothing.

shots by jose bosingwa and granero went flying over the west brom crossbar, while a 30-yard effort by morrison at the other end curled just inches wide of the far post.


with a little over 10 minutes left in the game youssouf mulumbu scored his first of the season for what would eventually prove the winning goal. what was without a doubt the most incisive passing move of the game shredded the QPR defence, leaving the congolese midfielder alone in front of goal to slot the ball neatly home on a cut back from deep down the inside right channel by gonzalo jara reyes to make it 3-1.

but while QPR have yet to gel as a team, they have spent a lot of money in the off season and there is considerable individual talent in the side. with 1:42 seconds of a 4 minute injury time played, granero scored a second rangers goal, again, without any build-up or obvious threat. neatly controlling a short pass in on the edge of the baggies' penalty area, the spanish midfielder turned deftly and looped a stunning strike into the top corner of the net past a rooted ben foster.


rangers made it a tense ending on a late corner kick that the albion failed to deal with properly and the ball fell to bosingwa in a good position. but the portuguese right-back blasted it over the crossbar as the final whistle went with almost 5 minutes added time played. the miss was no more than justice served and the baggies ran out 3-2 winners.

i was lucky enough to get back to new street station in time to catch the 5:42 train travelling back in the direction of bristol. somewhere between cheltenham and bristol parkway, i looked out the window at a darkening, deep red, clouded sunset. between the sky, the comfort of the train speeding along and the fresh memory of a baggies victory, i experienced a moment of sublime contentment. it had been another perfect day at the hawthorns.

WBA 3-0 Liverpool F.C.

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the baggies kicked off their third consecutive PREMIER LEAGUE season by continuing their current rehabilitation as a top-flight side and breaking yet another long-time hoodoo. not having won an opening day fixture in the top division for several decades, west bromwich albion, at home and under the direction of their new head coach, steve clarke, demolished an average looking liverpool team by a deserved score of 3-0.

while the merseysiders looked dangerous and had the better of the play for the first twenty minutes - thanks to the attacking skill of luis suarez - they were otherwise shut down by clarke's new-look albion side. along with the superbly disciplined back four and a sophisticated defensive game that the team learned under roy hodgson, the new gaffer has brought a CHAMPIONS LEAGUE attacking style to the club.


with five top-flight strikers now in the first-team squad, places in the starting team are going to be hard won this year. while simon cox and somen tchoyi have moved on, the baggies have retained shane long, peter odemwingie and marc-antoine fortune with midfielder, zoltan gera, returning from a season long injury. to their attacking options they have added swedish international, markus rosenberg - who was not yet fit to play on saturday; and teenage striker, romelu lukaku, who most decidedly was.

the 19 year-old belgian international, who is on season long loan at the hawthorns from chelsea, immediately made an impression and displayed his top-flight pedigree with the third and final goal for the albion after coming on as a 68th minute substitute for shane long.

the real surprise was that steve clarke started the match with a an adventurous and flexible 4-2-1-3 formation. the forward line saw gera moved into an advanced position on the left, odemwingie on the right and long at centre-forward. james morrison sat behind them as attacking midfielder with youssouf mulumbu and claudio yacob in the defensive holding positions. stephen reid has recovered from injury and was started at right-back, while liam ridgewell has nailed down the left-back spot since his arrival from blues last year. despite much speculation, jonas olsson has returned, and the swedish international has been paired up again with gareth mcauley at centre-half. together they are as good a set of central defenders as has been at the club since the 1970s.


while i say that this formation was "adventurous", it did make me think, well how ELSE do you play football at a big club like liverpool or chelsea?!? the answer, of course, was obvious. steve clarke has a long history of being associated with top clubs and it looks, at the moment, like he is going to be a top manager. he may even be someone who would be able to acheive what the average albion supporter hasn't been able to imagine possible since the days of cyrille regis and tony brown. but then, it's probably a bit premature to project top-four finishes and CHAMPIONS LEAGUE nights returning to the hawthorns just yet.

however - and in the quest to revive the traditional spirit of west bromwich albion - this is the best balance that the baggies have had between quality and depth in the side for years, and a cup run wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility.

what was different about this performance compared to other results acheived against the big clubs over the last two seasons, was just how dominant the baggies were in both attack and defence. last year's win over chelsea at the hawthorns, for example, was a deteremined defensive display that totally shut down the london club's top scorers, allowing centre-half gareth mcauley to nick a late winner from a chris brunt corner to give west brom a long overdue victory over the blues.

against liverpool, however, the baggies were the better team all day long and in every aspect. despite some good passing in the middle of the park, and several good chances that fell to luis suarez inside the first half-hour, it was zoltan gera who got the baggies' season started with a goal that resulted from a james morrison corner in the 42nd minute. martin skrtel's clearance fell to gera just beyond the edge of the reds' penalty area, and needing a single touch to bring it under control, the hungarian international blasted a 20-25 yard screamer past a helpless pepe reina in the liverpool goal.


the baggies led 1-0 at the half.

the albion totally dominated the second period as shane long went on to win two penalties in the space of a few minutes. through on goal in the 57th minute, and with only reina to beat, the young irish striker felt a desperate and beaten daniel agger dig an elbow into his back. he went over in the box and won the decision which also saw the liverpool defender red-carded. however, long's effort was as poor a penalty as one is likely to see at this level of football and was an easy save for the liverpool keeper. it was only moments later that long won a second penalty and a chance to make ammends for the earlier missed opportunity.

chasing down the play in the liverpool penalty area, long used his pace and skill to get in behind the reds' defenders - and coming from the blind-side - took the ball from martin skrtel. skrtel then unwittingly gave away the second spot-kick when long was tripped up as he muscled himself into position between skrtel and the ball.

despite a debate amongst the west brom forwards as to who would take the kick, the responsibility fell to peter odemwingie. this time there was no mistake as the nigerian international buried a ferocious effort in the corner of the net beyond reina's reach just inside his right-hand post.

newcomer, romelu lukaku, came on as a 68th minute substitute for shane long, made an immediate impact as an incisive baggies' counter-attack saw the teenage striker put james morrison in with a gilt-edged scoring opportunity. with only pepe reina to beat, morrison curled his effort just wide of the far post when he really should have scored.

with albion continuing to press, a scuffed clearance fell to liam ridgewell, who looped in a perfect cross for lukaku to head home into an empty net at the far post.


while there wasn't a weak performance in the albion side, it was defensive midfielder, claudio yacob, that walked away with the man-of-the-match award. the argentinian was near perfect in his distribution. not only was he winning balls in the centre of the park, but completed a stunning 98% of his passes attempted.

however, the real star of the match was new albion boss, steve clarke. he looked cool, calm, composed and every bit the PREMIER LEAGUE manager. his team selection, as well as the confident manner in which he had the baggies playing, showed him to be possessed of a top footballing brain. his assured presence in leadership was evident and he appeared more than ready for a job he has clearly been preparing for for quite some time.

if this performance was any indication of things to come, then the baggies might just have made that crucial step up to the next level and are on their way to another successful year in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE.

WBA 2-1 Bolton Wanderers F.C.

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i am going to have no trouble this week writing about how well the baggies played last saturday; nor will i find it difficult to credit the character and skill of shane long either. the young republic of ireland international made a heroic return to the albion first team a full two weeks ahead of the expected time frame, as well as scoring the winning goal.

in truth, there were any number of players in the side which played against bolton who could have been given the man of the match award. while long was truly heroic in coming back from what is generally a six week injury in just four weeks, nicky shorey played what was by far and away his best game since coming to the club and both centre-halfs were brilliant. youssouf mulumbu and jerome thomas were both back in form. chris brunt has evolved into the most cultured of players, now being the team's most senior member and club captain. stephen reid played an extremely solid game at right back and one can only hail the return of zoltan gera as a revelation.





the baggies haven't played anything like this since the opening games against manchester united and chelsea, and this was even better football than either of those two performances. especially the second-half, where we finally saw the possession and passing of a roberto di matteo or tony mowbray team infused with the economy, steel, defending and counter-attack of a roy hodgson side.

only time will tell, but this may have been a real turning point in the season. it might just have determined whether the baggies spend the rest of the campaign moving steadily, and in workman-like fashion, towards a mid-table finish, or whether they end up desperately battling against falling into the bottom three. the quality of this performance would suggest a scenario more in line with the former than the latter.

since the opening couple of matches against two genuine premier league giants, the baggies have been uneven and have played a very one dimensional style of football. that is, they have allowed teams to have possession, defended from midfield and increasingly pushed up from the back to force counter-attack opportunities. this tactic was practiced to great success against wolves and the villa, but was of little use against the likes of liverpool and arsenal.

the first order of business going into the season was to improve the side defensively. roy hodgson is known for producing very solid teams who are difficult to break down. after all, if your opponents don't score they're going to have a hard time winning games against you, aren't they?





under roy hodgson, a team has to learn how to defend and counter-attack efficiently.

the trouble has been that in adapting to the gaffer's style of football the baggies seemed to have committed to working on this pressing defence/counter-attacking system to the exclusion of anything else. this meant almost nothing but long balls cleared from the back that depend on shane long's ability at running the channels, holding the ball up or (with no other option) looking for a crack at goal. gone was the pretty and precise passing game that the baggies have been known for since the days of ronnie allen, ray barlow, don howe and bobby robson. albion supporters have come to have certain basic expectations, and win, lose or draw, hard tackling "long-ball" has never gone over well at the hawthorns.

the trotters started out brightly enough, signalling their intention to take the game to the albion by going straight into attack. but with just 15 minutes of the match gone, and the baggies meeting the lancashire clubs enterprise with resolute defending, zoltan gera beat the off-side trap putting jerome thomas through on goal. the albion left-winger went wide forcing the bolton keeper, jussi jaaskelainen, out of position and finished the move by putting the ball into an empty net.

however, inside of five minutes and in a near carbon-copy of what became a questionable and contentious call in their home game with liverpool, thomas was adjudged to have taken down fabrice muamba just inside the baggies' penalty area, giving ivan klasnic the opportunity to level the score at 1-1.





with west brom having a slight edge in terms of possession at the half and the game poised for a competitive second period, the baggies came back to take complete control of the match from here on out. in fact, the final 2-1 scoreline was in no way indicative of how one-sided the second-half really was.

the quality of the bolton defenders was evident from early on. in one of the first really dangerous attacking opportunities of the game jerome thomas sent shane long through on goal. the albion striker looked almost certain to get a proper crack on target but was thwarted by a perfectly time last ditch tackle made by a desperately back-tracking gary cahill. in truth, the baggies could've won this one by two or three goals save for the excellent work of jaaskelainen and the bolton defence.

the baggies finally made the breakthrough that put them on top 10 minutes into the second half. with bolton increasingly on the back foot, chris brunt spread the play with a cross-field pass to thomas, who held the ball up on the edge of the bolton penalty area just long enough for nicky shorey to find space in behind him. the albion left-back, returning to the starting eleven after several weeks out of the side, delivered a perfect cross for the athletic long to beat his marker in the air and head albion into the lead.

the next half hour saw the baggies playing football of the highest order, keeping the ball and always threatening. the trotters didn't see much of the play nor any real opportunity to threaten ben foster in the albion goal.





what roy hodgson has done is very simple. he's got everybody on the team performing fundamental defensive duties that they did not attend to under the last two managers. he has got both james morrison and chris brunt moving into deep defensive positions, winning and playing more balls out of the back. he's taught youssouf mulumbu where to set himself up and how to defend on set-plays - always a weakness for the congolese midfielder in the past; and in gareth mcauley he's found the centre-half that the albion have needed to play alongside jonas olsson.

the only problem is that the whole thing has required shane long leading the line to make it work. peter odemwingie has not found anything like the form of which he's capable; simon cox hasn't been given enough opportunity to play; and neither marc-antoine fortune nor roman bednar seem to be in the gaffer's plans. this leaves the enigmatic somen tchoyi as the only candidate to lead the line in the case of long being injured, and it is unlikely that there'll be any action during the january transfer window.

now that we've seen what kind of football the baggies should be playing, we can only hope that they continue to do so. this was an excellent performance all around.

The Big Teams...

Arsenal F.C. 3-0 WBA

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with this away match to the now high-flying arsenal - and the currently unstoppable robin van persie - the baggies completed their first set of matches against the traditional "big-four" clubs of english football. while this was a source for west brom picking up important points last year, it has become apparent that this year's challenge is to get results from sides with whom they will be in more direct competition in battling for top-flight survival.

while the baggies were poor at home to liverpool, they were only a little better playing away to the north londoners. however, it was all of small consequence and only certain individual performances gave them any reason to take heart from this encounter. arsenal are absolutely rampant at the moment, and nothing reflects this better than the fact that robin van persie has scored 28 times in the last 27 matches.





again, the baggies showed how bereft of ideas they are without shane long, and perhaps just how dependent they are, at the moment, on the injured striker. i could see from being at the wolves game just how much of the way that roy hodgson has them playing is reliant on long leading the line. without him, it's all defending and playing the ball out from the back. without long in the side, no one is making the ball stick up front and the forwards are getting isolated from the play. it is the young irish international's running of the channels and ability to hold up the ball that creates opportunity for the baggies' counter-attack.

while most of us could probably see it early on, it has become evident since even the away fixture to norwich city, that the baggies need to find another way to play.

this is all the more true with shane long out for another two or three weeks.

WBA 0-2 Liverpool F.C.

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not a big surprise, but after their two excellent derby wins against wolves and aston villa, the albion really had nothing to offer and save for one - mayber two - good passages of play, all the good work and momentum of the derby weekends came completely undone against the world famous merseysiders.

the albion weren't expected to win, or even draw this game, but it was pretty dismal and uninspired football and not worhy of a roy hodgson team, regardless of the circumstances. there were, however, more than a few questionable calls from referee, lee mason, not the least of which was a controversial penalty against jerome thomas early in the match which allowed charlie adam to put the merseysiders one-nil up and set the tone for the rest of the game.





while it was generally acknowledged a soft penalty by one and all, it was by no means the worst call (or non-call) of the match. liverpool were allowed to handle the ball perhaps eight or ten times in the second-half without being called for a foul.

be that as it may, there is no point dwelling on these games. we can only hope tht roy hodgson has got something figured out for the upcoming home fixture with bolton.

so far, we still haven't seen a lot of the good passing football for which the albion has always been known - and has been the cornerstone of their success these past few seasons. with the squad that he's got right at the moment, the gaffer would probably be well advised to get the team more focussed on possession, playing the ball through the midfield, looking to stretch the play and getting players like james morrison, graham dorrans, youssouf mulumbu and zoltan gera more involved in attack.

other than that, all we can hope for is shane long's quick return to the team.

Cometh the Transfers - Cometh the Season

with the start of this year's football league competitions just a little over 24 hours away, and the premier league proper ready to go a week from tomorrow, i find myself scrambling to get this article written so that i'm at least up to date before hull and blackpool kick-off tomorrow evening.

i look forward to the prospect of a fourth season blogging about the baggies, digital multi-media, trans-atlantic trips to the hawthorns and televised football from the perspective of supporting a large community based club from overseas.

unless you happen to support manchester city, the talk on message-boards, fan forums and chat-rooms is almost exclusively preoccupied with rumours from the transfer market, ranting and lamenting that your club has not spent enough money or brought in the players so desperately needed to achieve whatever relative success will be on immediate demand.




for the millions who support manchester united, they will be worrying about a lack of depth to compete successfully in both the premier league, uefa champions league, and will be expected to win at least one of the two major domestic cup competitions as well. they will also be contesting the charity shield game against cross-town rivals and current fa cup holders, manchester city this sunday.

fans of both liverpool and chelsea will have similar expectations, while arsenal, tottenham and manchester city will be expecting nothing less than a top-four finish. newcomers norwich, QPR and swansea city will join most of the rest of the league in targeting survival and little else.

of course, if you support an established mid-table premier league side (if indeed, such a thing truly exists), you might also entertain the prospect of a cup run; just as long it doesn't come at the expense of, or create any distraction from getting the necessary results in the league.

whatever the situation, the complaints will always be roughly the same and most supporters will believe their club not to have been aggressive enough about "splashing the cash" in order to obtain what are very often unrealistic signings and expectations.





with manchester city being the one notable and consistent exception to the rule, sunderland has been the one truly aggressive club since the outset of the summer tranfer window. they signed everybody they could, it seemed, and they did it early on. this is no doubt reaction to the drastic drop in form the black cats suffered during the second-half of last season.

as for west bromwich albion, they've done OK. the baggies signed defenders gareth mcauley and billy jones right at the outset - and before their tour of the western US - and action was relatively slow for another week or so while talk of owen hargreaves coming to the hawthorns started to flag a bit. however, they were then successful in their quest for a number one goalie in taking ben foster from cash-strapped and on the rocks birmingham city; while zoltan gera re-signed with the albion and is expected to start playing in september, after serving a three-game ban for a red-card incurred playing for fulham on the final day of last season.

it is no secret that west brom still need another goalie, with boaz myhill having gone to blues, and are also looking for a striker. even with a new stiker - the current target being reading's shane long - i think that hodgson has a few surprises up his sleeve.




for example, he brought roman bednar back for the pre-season, along with a fit ishmael miller, and gave them both regular playing time on the american trip, as well as two friendlies back on english soil - against rochdale and southampton respectively. the two veteran baggies' frontmen were generally rotated in partnership with simon cox and somen tchoyi. peter odemwingie did not make the trip, taking some deserved recuperation time following what was ostensibly two years straight football without a break.

whether he's got another striker coming or not, the gaffer is hedging his bets and looking to maintain his resources in order to manage the inevitable injury problems that will occur at some point in the season.

it won't be the same as last year, and new heroes will have to take on new responsibilities if the baggies are going to see continued success in the premier league. however, things are looking good: graham dorrans will no doubt get a chance to leave his mark on the top-flight, and we could very well see some of the mowbray-era veterans like ishmael miller, roman bednar and zoltan gera getting some time in the side.

with the baggies continuing their off-season with a match away to bristol city, hodgson started to show more-or-less what the starting team is going to look like for the beginning of the season. while ben foster didn't have much to do in his first outing in albion colours, you could sense his quality and the improvement he's going to add between the posts.

stephen reid, gabriel tamas, jonas olsson and nicky shorey made up the back-line. paul scharner and youssouf mulumbu continued their partnership defending in the midfield; while chris brunt and jerome thomas played wide behind a two striker set-up of peter odemwingie and somen tchoyi - a very solid looking albion side.

after squandering their initial opportunities and having a massive edge in possession, the baggies finally prevailed 1-0 on a late goal by substitute craig dawson.

right now the baggies have got one of the best managers in the business and an improved team from last year. it should be another good year in the premier league for west bromwich albion.

WBA 2-1 Fulham F.C.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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