Ipswich Town 1-1 WBA

in his analysis of late-20th century communications media, marshall mcluhan had assessed that radio was emphatically a "hot" medium. on the other hand, he rated TV as "cool". he contended that there was no better way to "hot things up" and get a war going than using radio propaganda targeted at specific and localized geographical areas. following the albion through streaming digital audio transmissions (internet radio) online tends to bear out the professor's hypothesis for me, week in and week out. indeed, the ALBION RADIO commentary supplied through the PLAYER service on the club website has had me hopping up and down, furious with referees, cursing players, managers, chairmen, owners and any other football functionaries you care to think of more than a few times this year.

i can't remember which match it was, but an offside call that pulled back what would have seen a winning goal for the baggies had me uncharacteristically steaming at the ref and pronouncing how much i'd really like to see a replay of that on TV in order to examine the extent of the injustice perpetrated by such irresponsible officiating. the commentary had me convinced that west brom had been blindly and blatantly robbed in the most obvious and controversial of fashions.

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this, however, turned out to be a combination of perspective (on the part of the commentators) and the media being decidedly "hot". when i actually saw the play in question on the football league highlights show, there was no real controversy - as the player was indeed offside and the call by the referee correct - and routinely so - with little question as to the fact.

audio commentary has its own particular qualities to incite and inflame the individual.

as "radio" fare goes, the baggies' league clash with ipswich town at portman road was very entertaining, accurately described and everything about this match eventually "hotted-up" through circumstance and the medium.

on an evening that saw all of the albion's "contemporaries" in the challenge for automatic promotion gain maximum points and - in several cases - substantially improve their goals against averages, the albion once again ran afoul of a stingy defense from the lower part of the league.

the tractor boys, while not playing the most beautiful football in the world, are very organized at the back and have become expert at avoiding defeat by creating a lot of low scoring draws. the baggies have not done well under these kind of circumstances this year, and - as against QPR at home - the team had to dig deep and exert their style of skillful, attacking football until the death in order to manage a draw.



once again, di matteo started the same eleven as the last two matches and kept the 4-5-1 formation seeing roman bednar as the lone striker with graham dorrans and robert koren in the midfield as his attack force. gabriel tamas, the club's new romanian centre-half showed that he possesses an extra degree of skill that we couldn't have been aware of from his performance against nottingham forest and has proved a much needed acquisition by the baggies.

the controversy of this one began with the penalty awarded against jonas olsson, which was quite inexplicable. the big swedish defender was - by all accounts - harshly penalized for routine jostling and shoving for position on an ipswich corner kick. even the mainstream press reported it as a poor decision on the part of the referee.

there was nothing particularly distinguished about this match. the baggies just couldn't break down yet another well organized and pedestrian defense. it was clear why the town have been involved in a lot of low-score or no-score draws of late and the baggies were eventually forced to gamble on a 2-5-3 formation that was absolutely hilarious to listen to.

"i think olsson's wondering who's playing left back and he's being told, 'you are mate!'" one of the commentator's noted.

truly, with bednar, miller and simon cox all playing up front supported by brunt and thomas on the wings, the albion had indeed gone into something resembling a 2-5-3 formation like a team from the 1940s or 50s. even scott carson came up on one of the last corner kicks as the baggies fought to the end for a draw in this one.

the overall effect of the commentary - and with the gross injustice of the penalty decision as its focus - got this match sufficiently "hotted up" that when chris brunt dramatically equalized in stoppage time, it all felt as good as a win and the point taken vital to the baggies' promotion campaign.

Newcastle United - League and Cup

WBA 4-2 Newcastle Utd.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Newcastle Utd. 2-2 WBA

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

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



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

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

WBA 1-3 Nottingham Forest

albion had everything to lose and forest everything to gain. the baggies were at a distinct psychological disadvantage and a complete loss as to how to deal with the challenge. their tentative, nervous and completely disjointed performance even set a new low for standard of play on the season. this was a worse display than either of the matches against barnsley or cardiff, both of which were absolutely terrible.

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i got to see this one on TV and it was as grand a disappointment as i have had to endure from the baggies all season. i hope i get something distinctly better than this when i make my next set of trips to the hawthorns - starting with the match against blackpool on the 13th of march.

there were even some unusually poor choices made on the part of the gaffer as to the starting line-up. di matteo should never have started gabriel tamas. not that the romanian defender had a particularly bad game; on the contrary, he was much better than jara, who had a terrible game. it's just that only being at the club for two days he's not settled at all and i think that the more familiar presence of shelton martis might have lent a little more collective steel to the back four.

there was absolutely nothing to recommend in this match except for striker roman bednar breaking his long standing scoring drought, the return of ishmael miller - and to a lesser extent - that of robert koren as well.



in fact, with bednar coming on at half-time and miller coming on in the 77th minute, one realizes how well roberto di matteo has done with the squad that he inherited from tony mowbray - injuries and all. the forward play between miller and bednar was a full cut above that which moore and cox had had to offer, that i couldn't help but think that what the new gaffer has achieved so far is truly exceptional. i mean, if the baggies can hold on to second-place for as much of the season as they have with the current squad, how will they do with the undoubtedly stronger line-up that they'll be finishing the season with?

ishmael miller's return was a reminder of something i'd almost forgotten. sadly, we'll never see neil clement play again, but james morrison may also eventually return.

i'm not usually a superstitious person, but i think that it is a mistake for the baggies to sell shirt sponsorships. on the most irrational level, i think that the gods of football favour the sponsor-less jersey. as evidence, the baggies have a decidedly poorer record when sporting sponsor logos on their uniform than not.

Huddersfield Town 0-2 WBA

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Scunthorpe United 1-3 WBA

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this was a little better stuff from the baggies - and especially from luke moore, who is looking increasingly a threat to come out of the slump that has plagued him most of the season. chris brunt, while still not looking the dangerous scorer he has for most of the season, put in an intelligent performance; and gianni zuiverloon showed again that he can be a real threat going forward.

however, the old habit of winning was greatly aided by the iron going on a self-destructive run of bookings that saw the team ultimately reduced to 9-men and conceding two penalties after having drawn level only 50 seconds into what looked might become a competitive second-half.

this was also the match where i realized that earlier decisions by roberto di matteo as to the starting team were much more measured, and his intentions as a tactician were more firmly established than i had first thought. while i think i probably should have realized it against cardiff or QPR, that in continually starting luke moore in a forward pairing with simon cox the gaffer was making plain display of what kind of attack he is trying to establish. he has deliberately taken a more direct approach, and must be planning a kind of utility role for roman bednar when a change of tactics is needed.

indeed, di matteo has favoured young chris wood as his primary substitute and is looking for the kind of midfield attack that will narrow the width at the front and try to play balls in behind the opposing back four. this is a style that suits both moore and cox and doesn't allow for a player like bednar to really get involved in the match. however, being capable of everything from the ridiculous to the sublime, bednar would be a good gamble late in the day and desperately needing something out of the ordinary.

the albion spark-plug in this match was undoubtedly graham dorrans, who seems to find his scoring touch away from the hawthorns. the young scottish international took advantage of a clear scoring opportunity in the 19th minute to put the baggies ahead.

after equalizing through a deflected then flicked on ball in the first minute of the second-half united's discipline disintegrated totally on a pair of penalties. dorrans was brought down by scunnie defender, rob jones, making a direct run into the box down the right flack. joe murphy the goalkeeper was booked for mockingly applauding the penalty decision, and dorrans - now the albion penalty taker since chris brunt's injury of last month - skillfully put the ball out of reach to the keeper's left for his second of the game.



already down to ten men through the acquisition of a second yellow-card by andrew wright in the 61st minute, scunthorpe gave up a second penalty, as well as having midfielder grant mccann sent off for his immediate, angry and animated dissent. while it wasn't a bad effort this time by dorrans, murphy rose to the occasion and anticipated the shot correctly.

finally, gianni zuiverloon scored through the intelligent play of chris brunt down the right-wing, with the northern ireland international spotting the dutchman's run and open space to set up the shot for zuiverloon's second goal of the season.

the baggies look set to follow a pattern on the season and their performance has been consistent and at times ruthless. while this is true, i don't think that we've really seen this team play at its absolute best; and that may not have been necessary until now with the next two league games coming up representing the most important challenges yet this season. if the baggies can rise to the occasion and take maximum points from forest and newcastle they will be ideally poised to challenge for the championship title. indeed, if they manage this, i have no doubt that they will actually win the title. the collective results of these next two league matches will determine just about everything else as far as the final table positions go. i hope they've been saving their best stuff for this pair of games.

also, as a fan of the FA Cup i'm hoping that we can get a strong enough team on the pitch to beat huddersfield and can get something going this year. i would dearly love to see a good cup run. ironically, i think it's probably good for confidence in a situation like this, and not worth ignoring to make the league your sole concern, obsession and irritation. it can keep a team - and certain players - playing and winning games in a prestigious competition without the pressure of the league to contend with. the 07-08 team that won the division and made the semi-final was a model albion team and it's just been too long since a club from england's penultimate division - whatever it happens to be called at the time - has won the competition. although, i know that's a bigger ask these days than it once was. but still, there should always be the dream.

WBA 2-0 Peterborough United

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luke moore has started scoring again. while the red-hot simon cox seems to have cooled in the last couple of matches, moore has finally broken his scoring drought with a coolly placed strike taking a deflection into the net against peterborough united. he has also seen more than a few of his finishes in the last three games called back for offside. this would tend to indicate that the striker has started to have some success at getting into the kind of position he needs to score.

one of my main assertions this season has been: as goes chris brunt so go the albion. while i believe this to still be true, the baggies have started to learn how to deal a little better with their main problem - and this is merely reflected in brunt's play.

the albion have lacked a mental toughness which makes it hard for them to win when not playing well. when the play is flowing and the ideas coalescing with the actual skills and high imagination becomes manifest, you get the idea that the baggies could take on brazil. this is evidenced by the number of extremely one-sided, high-scoring defeats that they have inflicted on the likes of middlesbrough (0-5), watford (5-0) and sheffield wednesday (0-4).



conversely, when nothing is really going right and the team are finding their touch heavy and passing inaccurate, the football awkward and unnattractive, the baggies just seem at a real loss for what to do?!? when chris brunt is lacking in imagination and play just not working for him they run into real problems going forward. what's worse, is that brunty is in a bit of a slump at the moment.

fortunately, i think this baggies team knows what it's got to do, and even if we end up with another nail-biting season as to whether the outcome is automatic promotion or facing the perils of the playoffs, i have faith that this lot has come to understand what is needed and will scrap for points when they have to from here on out.

the baggies played well against a struggling QPR side and came away on the short end of an undeserved draw for which they had to work to achieve. this one was won on two of the scruffiest goals scored back to back by an albion side in a long time. in a case like this, however, i'll take the scruffy little win over beautiful, flowing, expansive football.

WBA 2-2 QPR

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while the albion have hit another little patch of poor results (2 points from a possible 9), simon cox rolls on with 6 goals in 7 games now - including the equalizer deep into injury time to help the baggies avoid a second home defeat in the space of a week.


the thing that was different about this was that it was the first time this year where the team played generally well - they kept up the pressure on rangers for most of the game - and didn't get full points. i've seen the baggies play badly and win. i've seen them play badly and lose. i've even seen them play badly and earn a draw. but i haven't seen them play this well and not get the result that they absolutely deserved. of course, it was common in the premier league but heretofore unseen in the championship this year.

to be fair, it was really just a bit of good luck that fell for QPR after what has been a horrendous month for them - and after starting the season as one of the form teams in the division, as well. truthfully, the play that saw jonas olsson head in an own goal from an incoming corner-kick could just as easily have been called back for a foul, as the big swede was obviously pushed in the back during the scramble for position in front of goal.



as for the albion - and as good as some of the football has been - i still don't think we've seen this team firing on all cylinders yet. while simon cox has found a really hot hand and may be a better striker than we may have at first suspected, none of the other forwards have found consistent form and made for the kind of season that the baggies had in winning the championship title two years ago.

it was obvious that we've been missing jerome thomas who scored his 6th goal of the season and has been - along with chris brunt - the best player on the team this year. we should have probably won this one 3 or 4-2, but that isn't going to happen until another one of the strikers also finds some form.

of course, luke moore is playing ok, but not doing so well. he's a bit dozy and slow to react to unexpected opportunity, but if he gets the right ball in behind the back four he's a good striker... just nothing falling for him at the moment. i still think they should give chris wood a start paired with simon cox. especially since they can now bring bednar on as substitute.

i've heard it said that when things are going well, that's the time to buy. this being true, the baggies are going to have to look at acquiring a top left-back, a good central defender and another striker during the transfer activities in january if they want to challenge for the division title this year.