The problem with getting used to the finer things in life is that if, on occasion, you are deprived of them, it stings all the more. And that’s exactly what happened against Palace for, after an amazing run of seven home wins in eight Premier League games at The Hawthorns, a run where we’ve been scoring goals and creating chances aplenty, this was one of those afternoons where we could have played until Sunday and still not scored.
Not that there was any lack of effort but instead just a day when the spark wasn’t there, when a team that had been regularly reeling off individual performances in the sevens, eights and nines out of ten struggled to get many beyond a six. It happens, these are men not robots, sometimes you have that archetypal “bad day at the office” so beloved of cliché. And this was one of those.
What we also saw though was a significant switch in the attitude of the opposition. Let’s face it, over the last few years, there’s been no real reason for sides to dread coming to God’s country because we simply haven’t won our games here on a regular enough basis. This season though, we have turned that around, and how.
Yet with that comes a change in the mood and approach from our opponents. In the past, most were willing to come here and mix it, looking for the three points and playing accordingly. But now, as we accumulate wins and points and get ourselves ensconced in the top half of the table, managers and coaches are looking at us with a fresh respect and are coming to The Hawthorns happy enough to escape with the point they started with.
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Albionship 3000
The Football League resumed just as this season will end, with the Throstles winging their way to Swansea, albeit that back on August 31st 1946, Swansea City were then still just a Town, playing their football on the Vetch Field rather than the Liberty Stadium.
Middlesbrough v Albion
We’ve been here before – notably at Hull and Sunderland – but the conundrum is, was this a point won or two spilled.
Chairman - John Williams
Things get taken for granted very quickly in football, such that very often, credit doesn’t get dished out when it’s due.
Jonny Evans - the way he plays . . .
The transfer market. It’s a difficult beast to handle, one fraught with danger, however good your research, however smartly you approach it. There’s always another club looking to steal a player from under your nose, or the player who looks a sure fire winner only to fail once a move is made. You can bring ten new faces in and watch them queue up to flop, or place your eggs in a solitary basket and still be crossing your fingers as the contract is inked.
albion v derby county
this was a 90 minutes that did have all the hallmarks of a classic fa cup tie but unfortunately those hallmarks tend to include the big club losing out to the smaller one after an impassioned rearguard action, helped by a healthy dose of (mis) fortune. on that score, this was the kind of game that has given the fa cup its huge reputation both in this country and around the world, but to be honest, we’d have much preferred a quiet, uneventful afternoon where, in the finish, the form book was upheld.
Darren Fletcher
‘We were pleased that the supporters at least had something to take home with them after following us in such good numbers in terrible conditions’
Albion v Stoke City
Given the demise of alternative football clubs in the locality, Stoke has become our de facto derby game these days and did this one ever live up to that kind of billing, a feisty, feverish, blood and guts encounter that included home heroes, pantomime villains and a fairytale ending where we all lived happily ever after. Or at least the ones who count did – us.
Albion v Sunderland
It’s a mark of Albion’s growing confidence, maturity and, overall, quality that without ever really getting close to our best form, and coming out of the shadow of consecutive defeats, this win over Sunderland was every bit as routine for us as Manchester United’s was for them when they were at The Hawthorns before Christmas.
Tony Pulis
‘We have given ourselves a chance of having our best season in the Premier League era, and we really want to capitalise on that opportunity over these next three months’
Albion V Crystal Palace
The problem with getting used to the finer things in life is that if, on occasion, you are deprived of them, it stings all the more. And that’s exactly what happened against Palace for, after an amazing run of seven home wins in eight Premier League games at The Hawthorns, a run where we’ve been scoring goals and creating chances aplenty, this was one of those afternoons where we could have played until Sunday and still not scored.
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Record electric vehicle sales last summer amid a shortage of computer chips and other materials propelled Tesla Inc. to the biggest quarterly net earnings in its history.
RIGHT ON CUE: NBA FINDS HIGH TECH OPTION FOR VIRUS TESTING
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SENATOR ASKS FACEBOOK CEO TO TESTIFY ON INSTAGRAM AND KIDS
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FACEBOOK PLANS TO HIRE 10,000 IN EUROPE TO BUILD ‘METAVERSE'
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PAWN STARS' CHUMLEE SHEDS 160 LBS OF FAT
Gastric sleeve works miracle