WEST BROMWICH ALBION v DERBY COUNTY ............................. Sky Bet Championship Game 7
8.00pm THE HAWTHORNS Tuesday 14th September 2021
A sort of quiet reflection hangs over The Faithful as our shortcomings continue to be exposed and our longcomings fail to manifest themselves
After the last game v Birmingham, yet again OUR mistakes lead to our demise - however without the mistakes, it would still have only been 0-0. I can see what they are trying to do and unless we get out of this kafkaesque nightmare of the embargo, old Franz could see us setting up a parallel world to rival his own
Derby of course are still minus Forsyth and the worries about fitness and injuries gets ever more acute. Not sure how long Jagielka can keep playing but I'm just thankful that he gets through the game without blowing up his 'arris. Curtis is no spring chicken either but they are both stalwarts and without them, conceeding at set pieces could have been far worse.
West Brom meanwhile, fresh from the premier league, with all their riches have made a confident start with 4 wins, 2 draws and no losses. They are fairly physical and they still cry about 2007 (as do we).
It should be an attritional game – once again the bookies don’t fancy it (1.50 and 6.50 respectively – 4.20 for a draw).
Remember this is an eight o'clock on a Tuesday night.
Team news:- Roos Byrne Shinnie Jagielka Jozwiak Baldock Sibley Buchanan Davies Knight WilliamsSubstitutes: Allsop StearmanBird Watson Lawrence Morrison Stretton.
comment by Scouse (U9675)
posted less than a minute ago
comment by FinlandRam (U3621)
posted less than a minute ago
5 points off the play offs ....
----------------------------------------------------------------------
............. and six ahead of the Red Dogs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
and only 3 behind them if we get the 9 point deduction ...
comment by FinlandRam (U3621)
posted about a minute ago
5 points off the play offs ....
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I like that
comment by FinlandRam (U3621)
posted 7 minutes ago
3rd best defence in the league …
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No way we deserved to win that but no way we deserved to lose it! Superb defending and goalkeeping. How much more secure Roos looks when not expected to play like a midfielder. And it seems we have another to add to the squad - Williams was excellent and only turned 18 yesterday!
On Friday Brum only had about 30% possession yet we conceded 2 goals. Tonight we only had about 30% possession and we didn't concede any. Moral is, give the ball to the opposition.
comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 3 minutes ago
Sounds like a tremendous point. Massive credit to management and players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Stay in Scotland more often.
Morning after View :
Well, being as me & Mrs H are in Toledo driving back from Costa Del Sol we missed the game. So had to rely on Youtube for the visuals this morning - which wasnt much TBH. Anyway a pleasant surprise to see we attained a creditable draw.
From what I've seen of the Championship this season it's not a football purists league. Arsenal beat WBA a couple of weeks ago 6 0 in the Cup....so an indicator of the gap between the two leagues. Got to say I'm disappointed in the fact that many teams seem to be lining up and playing the Barnsley way. Clearly we had to match them last night physically - which we didn't do against Brum and paid the cost. Yes we rode our luck on a couple of occasions last night but defended resolutely which ultimately gained us a point which I didnt think we'd get. Fact is though we need to get a couple of wins under our belts to get into a position of safety. When you're only getting 1 point at a time its easy to get pulled into the bottom 3.
Anyway onwards and upwards. Stoke at the weekend will be no easier than the last 2 games - but hopefully we can get a win. ....UTR
I suppose it comes to something when I'm thrilled by a performance where we had no shots on target. Maybe one - a screamer from Knight deflected wide but I do not think it would have gone in anyway. I would not want to watch footy like that every week but the approach was wholly justified in our situation. Thank goodness the tippy tappy between Roos and defenders was never once used this time. WBA were clearly baffled and did not like doses of their own medicine. (Must say I feel for their supporters if that first-half display is typical. They were much better second half and I was certain they must score as it was like the Alamo out there but brilliant defending from all of our eleven got its just rewards in the end.)
Stoke will be another difficult game as they are defensively well organised and we need goals. I just hope that we can from now on adopt a more proactive and varied approach mixing playing between the lines with long balls. Even the WBA giants were mis-heading some of our hoofs and this allowed us to get into their final third. Maybe lessons have been learned.
