A goalless draw in their last match at a Blackburn side that had a one hundred per cent winning record at home before that is not to be sniffed at, but, after setting the early pace at the top of the Championship, largely on the back of Josh Maja’s goals, West Bromwich Albion go into tomorrow’s fixture at the Hawthorns against the side that was propping up the league for six weeks or more not quite the overwhelming favourites they’d have been three of four weeks ago.
Albion’s run of no wins in five combined with City picking up ten points from the five matches in which Omer Riza has been in charge means the game looks like being a bit more competitive than might be expected when fourth in the table entertains twentieth.
It’s still probably true to say that the most likely outcome tomorrow is going to be a home win and that’s what I’d expect in reality, but I’ll be happy if we can turn in a performance that offers enough proof that that the level shown in our last two matches (and for a portion of the one before that) is a better measure of what we’re capable of this season than the woeful stuff seen under Erol Bulut in out first six league games was.
Here’s seven questions based on West Bromwich players from the past and present.
60s. This full back packed a lot into his eighteen year playing career, much of which was spent at West Brom, where, despite his north eastern roots, he started his footballing life with a goalless draw against Bolton. More memorable was the game in which he joined a very select club of defenders who’ve scored a hat trick in a top flight game. When he left the Baggies after nearly one hundred and fifty league appearances, it was to join a club based in a Canadian city where City have played before and he was one of five English players selected in a Canadian squad for the qualifiers for the 1974 World Cup, only for him to become one of the three ruled out by a rule change. By then, he was back playing in England for lower leaguers that pulled off a famous giant killing in which he was team captain, He next signed up for Romans from the west and then he headed for the Pacific coast again, but this time the other side of the border with a team from the city where the Seahawks reside. His final club play in green and white stripes and are not too far from the Hawthorns, but who is this uncle of a Olympic sliver medal winner when representing the UK in athletics?
70s. Which owner of an MBE and an OBE played against City in a Cup Final as a teenager after being told “well, perhaps cricket is your game.” by one of his teachers? He was the first black player to play senior team football for his first club and then moved to lowlands where he prospered to the extent that West Brom signed him some seven years after he played in that aforementioned Cup Final.
80s. One way of describing the decline of horses I hear!
90s. Stereo in the City that never sleeps initially maybe? (4,4)
00s. Which scorer for West Brom against City during this decade was still playing at the age of forty three for Prespa in the Macedonian Third Division last year?
10s. Ten years ago, this forward who began his career at West Brom was in the process of scoring eleven goals in twelve appearances for England’s under 21 team, today he plays his club football in India and his international football for Burundi, who is he?
20s. Which current West Brom player has already faced City twice this season?
Answers:
60s. Bobby Cram, the uncle of Steve Cram, began his career at West Brom before signing for Vancouver Royals before a return to England saw him sign for Colchester. Cram captained Colchester in their famous 3-2 win over Leeds in a Fifth Round FA Cup tie in 1971. Cram later went on to play for Bath City, Seattle Sounders and Bromsgrove Rovers.
70s. Brendon Batson, one of the “Three Degrees” at West Brom along with the late Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis” was the first black player to play first team football for Arsenal after having won the Youth Cup with them in 1971 when they beat City 2-0 in a two leg Final. Batson signed for Cambridge United and then followed his manager, Ron Atkinson, to West Brom in 1978.
80s. Wayne Dobbins.
90s. Tony Rees.
00s. Danish defender Martin Albrechtsen scored for West Brom in a 3-3 draw against City at the Hawthorns in January 2008.
10s. Saido Berahino played against City in the Premier League in 13/14, but his stock has fallen since then and, at the age of thirty one, is now playing in India for Rajasthan United.
20s. Goalkeeper Josh Griffiths is on loan to Bristol Rovers for this season. Griffiths played against us in a pre season friendly and in a First Round League Cup tie, both of which resulted in 2-0 City wins.