We need to do a Coventry

Last updated : 02 February 2008 By Tony Scholes

It looks a tough one, it really does, but we need to learn from Coventry who went there in December and became the only side to win there this season, scoring four goals in the process.

It is no surprise to see West Brom at the top of the league. Many judges believed them to be the best side in the division last season and since then they have strengthened their squad.

That one home defeat means Ipswich are the only side with a better home record in the Championship, they have scored more home goals than any other side, and only four sides have conceded less goals on their own ground, one of whom surprisingly are struggling Preston.

It is the goals scored that is startling, and only Ipswich can come close. The Baggies have netted no fewer than 37 goals in 14 home games. They've scored five against both QPR and Scunthorpe whilst Ipswich, Charlton and Bristol City have all conceded four at the Hawthorns. Only Wolves have prevented them from scoring.

Having pointed out just how good they are there is no doubt that they are not invincible, they can be beaten and now is possibly the right time to go there. In 2008 they have won only once in the league in four games and have suffered defeats at Ipswich and more recently Preston.

Click HERE to see West Brom's results this season


Both sides have added new players to their squads this week. Ishmael Miller has now become a permanent signing for West Brom whilst Burnley have added both Andrew Cole and Mark Randall on loan.

It's the second best home record in the division versus the second best away record. We've won at the league leaders already this season, and we can certainly do it again in front of what could be our biggest away following of the season so far.


Team News

Tony Mowbray will be able to welcome back leading scorer Kevin Phillips and he is likely to partner Roman Bednar who is currently with the Baggies on loan from Hearts.

None of the new signings will feature. Goalkeeper Michael Danek (signed from Viktoria Plzen) won't be in the squad whilst Kim Do-Heon (who arrived on loan from Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma) is on international duty. Ishmael Miller made his loan a permanent move but he's out injured just now with a hamstring problem.

West Brom's likely line up is: Dean Kiely, Carl Hoefkens, Bostjan Cesar, Martin Albrechtsen, Paul Robinson, Zoltan Gera, Robert Koren, Jonathan Greening, Filipe Teixeira, Kevin Phillips, Roman Bednar. Subs from: Luke Steele, Leon Barnett, Pele, Neil Clement, Chris Brunt, Craig Beattie, James Morrison.

Click HERE to see the full West Brom squad

Owen Coyle was down to sixteen players last week but for this game he has two extra players to select from in new loan signings Andrew Cole and Mark Randall.

We are still without long term injury victims Besart Berisha and Michael Duff, but there's been brilliant news this week with Duff having played in a behind closed doors friendly. Neither Clarke Carlisle nor Alan Mahon are close to returning with their hamstring injuries and Steve Jones misses out again after picking up an injury at Coventry.

To add to that Kyle Lafferty is still out, but the good news for him is that this is the last game of the four match ban he got for the sending off in the FA Cup tie against Arsenal.

Coyle has already confirmed that Cole will be in the squad, and I think Randall will also make the sixteen. However, I expect both of them to be on the bench and that he will name the same side that beat Scunthorpe last week.

If so the Burnley team will be: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Stanislav Varga, David Unsworth, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs from: Gabor Kiraly, Steven Caldwell, John Spicer, Mark Randall, Andrew Cole, Stephen Jordan, Garreth O'Connor.


Last Time Round

This is not one we particularly want reminding of. We'd had a good run away from home which had seen us remain unbeaten until we lost 1-0 at Cardiff the week before our visit to the Hawthorns.

Frank Sinclair - not a good day on his return to the Hawthorns
If we thought we would get back to winning ways on our travels we were to be sadly mistaken as West Brom virtually had the game won in the first seven minutes. I say virtually because anything is possible in football and when we played them at home later in the season we got off to exactly the same start, going 2-0 down in eight minutes at home, and went on to win 3-2.

Incredibly the two games had the same scorers, a lead from Jason Koumas on 5 minutes (6 in the home game) and 2-0 from Nathan Ellington two minutes later in both games. But this is the away game we are looking at and the big Burnley support was stunned at the opening when they just simply tore us apart, particularly down our right hand side where an exposed Frank Sinclair had something of a nightmare against a former club.

You wonder just what's going to happen after a start like that but to our credit we came out and took the game to the home side and for a period were the better side. Russell Hoult was in good form in goal for West Brom and he made a couple of good saves whilst Chris McCann came close to scoring and Gifton Noel-Williams should have scored.

As half time approached we hadn't been able to pull a goal back and right on the interval it got a whole lot worse when Darren Carter added a third. But for that opening few minutes we had been very much still in the game. However, we'd played our best football and the second half was a major disappointment as West Brom took their foot off the pedal and settled for the 3-0 win.

Very little happened, but if Frank had had a bad start it got a lot worse for him with just over ten minutes to go when Richard Beeby sent him off for a second yellow card. His first had been fully justified but his second looked very harsh indeed.

By the end there was no doubting who deserved the points and after such a good start to the season away from home we'd suffered successive defeats.

The teams were;

West Brom: Russell Hoult, Martin Albrechtsen, Curtis Davies, Chris Perry, Paul Robinson, Diomansy Kamara, Nigel Quashie, Darren Carter, Jason Koumas, Kevin Phillips, Nathan Ellington (Richard Chaplow 74). Subs not used: Luke Steele, Steve Watson, Ronnie Wallwork, Paul McShane.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley (Micah Hyde 58), Wade Elliott (Alan Mahon 45), James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams (Kyle Lafferty 63), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Stephen Foster.


Previous results against West Brom

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

2006/07

C

a

0-3

18,707

.

..

h

3-2

12,500

Gray(2) McCann

2007/08

C

h

2-1

15,337

Duff Gray(pen)



Click HERE to see all our results against West Brom