Pre-Match Thoughts
Another Saturday, another six-pointer. I’m feeling good about this game and am confident that we’ll get at least a point. Our rivals have tougher matches this weekend and I can’t see Hull and Boro getting anything out of Liverpool and Arsenal respectively, while draws between the Mags and Portsmouth, and Blackburn and Wigan would be fine. If Villa beat Bolton, then that would put the icing on the cake. Team news is scant at this stage but for West Brom key man James Morrison is definitely out and surely Richardson will return for us. Last time I was at the Hawthorns in 1977 we came away with a great victory, 3-2 I think, and I managed to guide us through Spaghetti Junction on the way home to complete a perfect afternoon. Final score today? 2-1 to us.

The Match
The journey up from Marylebone was great and I watched the lambs gambolling in the fields as the sun shone. After leaving the Hawthorns Metro station a smiling bobby directed me round to the Royal Oak, where I quaffed a Strongbow outside amid a throng of our fans with quite a few Baggies fans mixing in amicably. I heard an amusing new chant to the tune of Petula Clark’s Sixties classic ‘Downtown’ i.e. “Doon Toon. Doncaster’s waiting for you.” After I’d taken my seat near the front of our section, there was generous applause for the Lads as they came to the by-line and did that business where they swivel around a bit, then run and dodge. A guy in front of me had a jacket with ‘Dutch Mackems’ emblazoned on it. West Brom had a strange pair of birds as their mascots, the male of which had difficulty sitting down when the game started and had to recline as if he was at a Roman banquet. A big flag was passed over our heads. All seemed right with the world.

When the game started, though, the afternoon took on a different hue. I’d been pleased to see Fulop and Richardson back in the starting line-up and as Roy Orbison once sang, “I was all right... for a while” but the writing was on the wall when in our first attack Edwards longish range effort was a mile wide. Tainio played well throughout but he was the only one I could give that accolade to and in the first half it was good to see Kenwyne winning quite a few headers for a change. I imagine the comments in the latest edition of ALS had stung him into action. Richardson was generally solid and he had our best efforts, producing two good saves from Carson in goal. Those were just about our only efforts, come to think of it. Davenport and Bardsley seemed to be coping fairly easily with West Brom’s early attacks, and they were doing the bulk of the attacking. However, when they went 1-0 up five minutes before the break everything went rapidly downhill and we hadn’t established much of a hill to come down from. The goal came from a corner by Greening on their left and technically it was a foul corner as the ball was clearly a little outside of the D but anyway the corner was duly slotted home by Olsson as we failed to deal with it. Interestingly, for their next corner a couple of minutes later the ref made Greening move the ball back inside the D. A minute later Bardo crunched into Greening.

There were a lot of people on the pitch during the break including several W.B.A. ladies teams as well as a load of their Under 8’s. Proud parents rushed to the front to photograph their sons and like at the SoL last week the kids did a lap of the pitch and got a good ripple, including from our lot.

Then it was back to the grind and I would’ve been happy with a 1-1 final score at that point. We were shite. We all know that Cisse and Kenwyne haven’t jelled upfront, but I had to agree with the comments of several around me when they said that we played better with just one of them on the pitch. This lack of anticipation between them was echoed throughout much of our team and it makes me wonder what they all do on the training ground. Cisse even saved what looked like a goal-bound shot from Tiny when he tipped it over. West Brom, who are bottom of the league and are therefore the worst side in it, were knocking it around happily as their fans, who were clearly relishing this rare event, were doing the West Midlands equivalent of “Oles!” as they ran us ragged. Much as I like Djib and Kenwyne as personalities and despite my gratitude for the goals they’ve got for us, we’d be mad to shell out £10m or whatever for the one and not accept £15m for the other. We could get Darren Bent and have a load of cash left over. We went 2-0 down around the hour-mark when they broke down their right and a low cross was slotted in by Brunt. We’d clearly had it then. Whitebread and Malbranque had come on for Reid and Edwards shortly before that and Edwards should’ve been off long ago. It didn’t make any difference and we never really looked like getting the ball to the by-line and crossing it like West Brom were clearly capable of doing. Healy came on with three minutes on the clock, except there was no clock in the ground as far as I could see, but he should’ve had his chance much earlier. West Brom responded by scoring their third and best goal, which again came down their right following step-overs, good movement off the ball and a good pass or two before their young sub Menseguez smashed it in. Quite a few of our lot had left by that stage and to be honest I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d got a fourth.

At one point both sets of fans were chanting at each other, “You’re going down with the Geordies” and I wouldn’t argue with that. Doncaster’s waiting for who?

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