Big game against the Baggies

Last updated : 17 November 2006 By Tony Scholes
Martin Albrechtsen
I'm not so sure why it's a favourite, I did see us win there on my first two visits, but wins have since been very scarce and our last win was as far back as December 1969 when a Steve Kindon goal was enough to give us a 1-0 win.

For years we managed to avoid each other, we even swapped leagues twice in the 1970s, in 1973 as we went up and they went down, and three years later when that was reversed, and following our relegation in 1970/71 it was the 1992/93 season before we met again.

We got a point there on our return to this division in 2000, a 1-1 draw with Graham Branch sliding a cross shot into the bottom corner beyond the Baggies keeper Brian Jensen. During the seasons since they have been up to the Premiership twice, and down twice, casting off manager Gary Megson and his successor Bryan Robson in the mean time.

Robson was at the helm as they suffered relegation last season and remained in charge this season and it was something of a shock when he was dismissed in mid-September with West Brom in ninth place in the table.

Most of us had a laugh about it, particularly with it being Robson, but the laughs soon turned to real concern when Steve Cotterill was considered favourite to take over by the bookmakers. He was the first favourite and remained there until the last couple of days before they eventually appointed Hibs boss Tony Mowbray.

Caretaker Nigel Pearson had done a good job, winning three and drawing one of four games, prior to handing over to the new man and departing to join Glenn Roeder at Newcastle where surely it won't be long before he's a caretaker manager again.

I think it is fair to say that West Brom have a squad that most of the other managers in the division must envy. They retained the players from last season, although goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak is on loan at Manchester United, and Robson added six more players to it.

The first of the signings was Welsh international striker John Hartson who left Celtic after five years in the SPL, and he was quickly followed by another international regular, goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuhler who has almost 40 caps for Switzerland.

Experienced defender Chris Perry was the next new face, he joined West Brom after spending his entire career in the Premiership with London clubs and having played 380 games at the top level. And to add to the experience, they got in ahead of Niall Quinn to beat Sunderland to the signature of Kevin Phillips who moved from Aston Villa.

Two younger players from Manchester United have completed the squad, goalkeeper Luke Steele and Paul McShane who scored against the Clarets last season whilst on loan at Brighton.

Mowbray got off to the best possible start as manager, beating local rivals Wolves 3-0 in his first match in charge, but they haven't won since although every team they have come up against in that run have said they are the best team in the division.

Click HERE to see all West Brom's results this season.

It's going to be another tough game for us tomorrow, there's no doubt about that, and we know how West Brom will play, they will push men forward and attack, it is Mowbray's style. I think this could just be a classic.

Team News

Tony Mowbray will be without influential midfielder Jonathan Greening who is serving a one match ban having recorded his fifth yellow card last week in their 1-0 home defeat against Norwich. But such is West Brom's squad that there will be no shortage of players set to replace him and they have Zoltan Gera, Nigel Quashie and Richard Chaplow all set to return from injury.

Gera is still having treatment but former Claret Chappy, who played against us last season for Southampton, should be available again having been ruled out last week with a back injury, just after winning a place in the side under the new manager. Defender Paul Robinson also returns, he has just completed a three match ban following his much publicised red card in their recent defeat at Birmingham.

Robinson is almost certain to come back in and the most likely replacement for Greening is Quashie and Gera, if fit should also play in midfield.
If that's the case, expect West Brom to line up: Pascal Zuberbuhler, Martin Albrechtsen, Curtis Davies, Chris Perry, Paul Robinson, Zoltan Gera, Jason Koumas, Darren Carter, Nigel Quashie, Kevin Phillips, Diomansy Kamara. Subs from: Luke Steele, Paul McShane, Stuart Nicholson, Steve Watson, Jared Hodgkiss, Ronnie Wallwork, Richard Chaplow, Nathan Ellington, John Hartson.

Click HERE to see the full West Brom squad.

For Burnley, we have Micah Hyde back after he completed his suspension, and that should mean we have all but John McGreal available for this game. Chris McCann has done well in the last two games, firstly at the back and then in midfield, but I would think Steve Cotterill will go with experience and that should see Micah back at Chris' expense.

Other than that it will probably be the same side that so undeservedly lost at Cardiff last week and would be: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams, Andy Gray. Subs from: Danny Coyne, Stephen Foster, Chris McCann, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Kyle Lafferty, Graham Branch.

Last Meeting

It was the second Saturday of the 2003/04 season, West Brom had been named favourites for promotion, we were amongst the bookies favourites to go down. On the opening day we had lost 3-2 to a nine man Crystal Palace team but things hadn't been much better for West Brom who astonishingly lost 4-1 at Walsall.

Stan Ternent had come up with this crazy idea of playing Graham Branch as a centre half, and after the poor defending against Palace we were enthused with the news of a new signing in David May who was to make his debut. But it wasn't alongside Arthur Gnohere when we kicked off, Arthur had been left out, and Branchy was still there alongside the new man.

We started brightly and took the lead with a free kick from Robbie Blake although it owed much to poor goalkeeping by Russell Hoult. That was just past the half hour and we had been the better side.

Unfortunately the home side came storming back, they had powerful shot go just wide from the delightfully named Bernt Haas but then equalised with a screamer from Macedonian international Artim Sakiri. There was nothing anyone could do about it, as it rocketed into the top corner. It was the only goal scored in English football from Sakiri, who came close to joining us in 2005.

Sakiri wasn't the only West Brom player to score his first goal for the club, on the hour we allowed Rob Hulse a free header from a corner. It was shocking defending. And if that wasn't bad enough Lee Hughes, who had been back at West Brom for ten months and hadn't scored a league goal, added two more as he twice caught our left winger cum central defender napping in the last two minutes of the game.

The final score of 4-1 was somewhat flattering to West Brom, but it was a warning to Burnley. We'd conceded seven goals in the first two games, there didn't appear to have been any improvement on the previous season when we just kept throwing one in.

The teams were;

West Brom: Russell Hoult, Thomas Gaardsoe, James Chambers, Joost Volmer, Bernt Haas, James O'Connor, Jason Koumas (Phil Gilchrist 84), Artim Sakiri (Andy Johnson 67), Neil Clement, Rob Hulse, Scott Dobie (Lee Hughes 52). Subs not used: Joe Murphy, Danny Dichio.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche (Dean West 78), David May, Graham Branch, Mo Camara, Luke Chadwick, Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Alan Moore (Richard Chaplow 62), Robbie Blake, Glen Little. Subs not used: Arthur Gnohere, Paul Scott, Matt O'Neill.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1992/93

2

h

2-1

14,796

Harper Conroy

..

a

0-2

15,722

.

1994/95

1

a

0-1

13,539

.

..

h

1-1

11,885

Robinson

2000/01

1

a

1-1

17,828

Branch

.

.

h

1-1

18,199

Little

2001/02

1

a

0-1

21,422

.

..

h

0-2

15,846

.

2003/04

1

a

1-4

22,489

Blake

..

h

1-1

13,106

Blake

Click HERE to see all our results against West Brom, and the first was a 4-3 defeat in 1888 in the very first season of the Football League.