There’s an awful lot of people talking up West Brom these days and, after a comfortable beating of second in the table Ipswich on Saturday, maybe they are the real deal – that said, I wasn’t overly impressed by their televised victory over Coventry recently or their loss at Birmingham back in the days when John Eustace was in charge there.
West Brom’s strength seems to be their defence and the man that appears to be built around is our loanee from last season Cedric Kipre, who I’ve seen selected in one or two on line Championship teams of the season lately. I think Dimitrios Goutas has been a very good signing and I was quite impressed by Jonathan Panzo on Saturday, but I’d have loved it if we could have got Kipre back for another loan.
Here’s seven West Brom related questions dating back to the fifties, the answers will be posted on here on Wednesday.
50s. No 60s question this time, as a one off I’m going back to the decade before that to ask what club record, which has not been broken since and is unlikely to ever be, did Trevor Ford set in a game against West Brom during this decade?
70s. This striker had no real plans to become a footballer as he started his working life as a trainee accountant in his native Midlands, but he signed for a local lower league side and, in a reserve game, he scored a hat trick against West Brom (the team he had supported as a boy). This persuaded the Baggies to sign him up and he was a useful squad member for them for four years before he moved to an unfashionable London club to become much more of first team regular during a time which present days fans must look back on with some affection given what’s happened to the team since then. It’s a bit similar for his next team as well – they were in the Second Division when he signed for them after another four years and have spent time out of the Football League since. He only played the one season in amber and black stripes though and, after a short loan spell on the Lancashire coastline, he then embarked on a retirement which has seen him compete on the Chase and in a quiz show I’ve never heard of called Letterbox, but can you name him?
80s. Noon shoes became mid afternoon boots for this full back! (6,6)
90s. Royal Family member goes into carpentry and/or construction trade perhaps!
00s. Who were the two players who made their first starting appearances for City’s senior team in the same game against West Brom at the Hawthorns during this decade?
10s. Sounds like a curt weakling to me!
20s. What City related fact from around ten years ago links former Czech Republic full back Daniel Pudil and a current member of the West Brom squad?
Answers:
50s. City faced West Brom on Christmas Day 1954 and soon fell 2-0 behind, but a great comeback was capped when Trevor Ford scored his second goal of the game in the eighty sixth minute to complete a 3-2 win – Ford will always be the last player to score a Christmas Day goal at Ninian Park and, almost certainly, is the last player to do it anywhere in the club’s history.
70s. Joe Mayo was signed by West Brom from Walsall and then had four years at Cambridge United and a loan spell at Blackpool before a retirement which has seen him appearing pretty regularly on various television game shows down the years.
80s Simeon Hodson.
90s. Stuart Naylor.
00s. Darcy Blake and Jason Byrne made their first City stars in the 1-0 defeat at the Hawthorns in February 2007.
10s. Chris Brunt (Crisp runt).
20s. Daniel Pudil and Nathaniel Chalobah were sent off in Watford’s 2-1 defeat at Cardiff City Stadium in October 2012.