Saturday Morning
Must win. That’s it in a nutshell. Richardson should be back in the starting eleven and I’ve a feeling that he’s going to score. My prediction is a 2-0 win. On the managerial front it seems that Niall can’t fight off potential managers with a shitty stick but Sam Allardyce seems to be hoving into view inexorably. He did a good job at Bolton, undeniably, and I think he’d be good for us but I’d still prefer Houllier, whose track-record and personal profile are more impressive. Apparently he says he’s not interested but let’s wait and see.

The Match
I tuned into Century Radio to hear Gary Rowell say that the very wet conditions favoured strikers and I liked the sound of that as West Brom had only one upfront while we had two. West Brom got two corners in the first two minutes, but then Cisse and Jones combined well to produce a good chance and that augured well. The home crowd were in very good voice and really getting behind the team.

Around the twelfth minute mark Sunderland loanee star Paul McShane put Hull one up at Anfield, which gave me hope that anything could happen. The first quarter of an hour sounded a nervy, mistake-filled but entertaining affair with neither keeper being seriously threatened. Reid and Tainio were getting numerous good mentions and this culminated with a great Reid pass feeding Kenwyne who headed home after twenty-two minutes. Within a minute or so we were two up with Kenwyne getting his second after good work by Cisse culminated in Reid’s shot being pushed out. I was sure then that we’d win as West Brom have had a lot of trouble scoring goals and I felt that we could get one or two more as they tried to get one back. We certainly needed to try and reduce our goal difference. With five minutes to go to the break we went three up with Reid deservedly getting on the score-sheet after heading in a good cross by Malbranque. West Brom sounded very flat and I fancied us to get five. Two minutes of stoppage-time were announced but, as Malbranque went close, I would’ve been happy with ten. It was great to hear cheers and not boos as the half-time whistle went.

West Brom introduced two subs at the start of the second-half, one of whom, Bedner, thoughtfully handled the ball in his penalty area within a minute and Cisse put us four up. If McShane could score and we could be awarded a penalty then surely it wouldn’t be unreasonable for us to get six? Edwards was brought on for Malbranque around the hour-mark and there was applause all round. On either side of this Cisse should’ve got his second and Bedner should’ve got one back, and it sounded like we were taking it down a gear or two. With just over twenty minutes left Carson saved well as Kenwyne went for his hat-trick and Reid smashed the rebound just wide. Reid was replaced by Leadbitter with twelve minutes to go and got a great ovation; we should’ve played him a lot more than we have this season. I could imagine Leadbitter blasting one in but it sounded really like we’d settled for 4-0. “Olés!” were echoing round the stadium as we made a couple of back-heels and a splendid time was clearly being had.

Well, all good and nothing bad. Okay, West Brom look certainties to go down and Hull next week will provide a much tougher test but this will set us up nicely and Blackburn on Boxing Day are very beatable. This was the perfect result for us as we climb out of the bottom three at the expense of the Mags and it was just the kind of afternoon to set up an evening of celebration. Cheers, everyone.

ALS Books click here