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West Bromwich Albion away match day thread


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Boing! Boing!

The original yo-yo team West Bromwich Albion are back in The Championship and are tipped to boing back to The Premiership next year.

West Bromwich Albion took part in the first season of the Football League in 1888. They have won Division One on one occasion, in 1920. They are five times FA Cup champions and one time Football League Cup champions.

West Brom weren’t always ‘The Albion’ - In 1878, a group of men at Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich decided to form a football team but they had to walk a few miles up the road to Wednesbury to buy their first football, so called themselves West Bromwich Strollers to remember that historic walk! The name was changed to Albion the following year. Now more likely to be called The Baggies having been so named allegedly by their fierce rivals of the day Aston Villa who gave them the nickname ‘the Baggies’ after taking the mick out of the West Brom fans who worked in the factories and consisted of workmen wearing baggy clothes.

Alongside being the home of WBA for over 120 years, The Hawthorns has also hosted a number of England internationals, as well as two FA Cup semi-finals. At an altitude of 551 feet (168 m), it is the highest ground above sea level of all Premier League and Football League clubs. The Hawthorns was the first British ground to use electronic turnstile counters.

WBA were the first English team to tour China in May 1978, and won all four games in front of crowds totalling nearly 250,000. One player, when asked if he wanted to see the Great Wall, is reputed to have replied, "If you've seen one wall, you've seen them all"

This year has seen the Albion ‘style’ change significantly with the arrival of Big Val from Barnsley – although this is proving successful (most of the time) not all black country Baggies are convinced with the direct pressing game employed and they can sometimes be somewhat one-dimensional and have been caught out by Stoke and Swansea most recently – when it works it’s effective but when it doesn’t they can be vulnerable on the break.

Albion boast a significant number of famous fans among their ranks of supporters including: Adrian Chiles, Frank Skinner, Lenny Henry and Liam Payne of One Direction. Continuing the music theme, rock legend Eric Clapton sported an Albion scarf on the cover of his album 'Backless' to show his love for the club. Clapton also sponsored Albion's UEFA Cup tie against Galatasaray in 1978.

We briefly employed Chris Brunt last season (he made 14 appearances) upon his return to WBA he has taken up a coaching role with their academy. Another connection involves NP who moved to West Bromwich Albion in November 2004 as assistant manager to Bryan Robson, and took over as caretaker manager when Robson left the club in September 2006. Albion won three and drew one of his matches in charge, before stepping down from the role in preparation for the arrival of new manager Tony Mowbray.

Our head-to-head record is lost 22, drawn 15 and won 15. Last time we played them away in November 2019 we lost 4-1 and in February 2020 they beat us 3-0 at AG.

They have lost just twice in the league (1-0 away to Stoke and in midweek at Swansea) and are unbeaten at home in the Championship this season (W4, D2). While we spectacularly imploded on Tuesday evening they travelled to Wales and lost to Swansea 2-1 on Wednesday. Although they scored inside a minute in the second half Pato’s assist and late winner turned things around. Swansea demonstrated, several times on Wednesday, that they are susceptible to the long ball over the top including when Pato caught out the WBA high back line for Piroe to equalise. Livermore was booked again in this game so won’t be involved today.

Karlan Grant is on fire having scored five in five games. They signed him in October 2020 for an undisclosed fee (rumored to be circa £15m) from Huddersfield Town. Certainly he will need careful marking today.

They have scored four in each of the last four league games against us at The Hawthorns! When looking for a bit of hope, it’s worth holding onto the fact it’s away and that Millwall and Derby both managed to draw at the Hawthorns in September.

To the traveling supporters, all 2,000 of them, here’s the guide to the ground: https://www.awaygames.co.uk/away-day-guides/west-brom-away/

The Vine Indian grill and curry pub is apparently good for away fans: https://www.thevine.co.uk/

Wherever you are watching from have  a great day, cheer us from beginning to end and always believe!

 

 

 

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Nice write up.
I remember seeing that “Seen one wall, seen them all” clip on Badiel and Skinner. Very funny.

I’m surprised our record against them is even that good actually. Feels like a team we hardly ever beat. Recall an exciting 3-2 home win a few seasons back but not much else.

Will be heading off in hope rather than expectation today. 

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4 minutes ago, Red_Alligator said:

Nicely written JB, you do an excellent job with these threads. 

I agree, must admit I gave up reading them most weeks last year (and before quite often now I think about it) but am really enjoying them again now.

Nice mix of history and football just like Hav did.

Edited by IAmNick
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9 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

I agree, must admit I gave up reading them most weeks last year (and before quite often now I think about it) but am really enjoying them again now.

Nice mix of history and football just like Hav did.

It’s why I preferred my previews to be separate by choice….Hav’s were great, and JB is recreating that for me.  It’s kinda perfect OTIB on a Saturday morning.

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