Baggies seeking first home goal for two months

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Brummie Road Ender

·22 November 2024

Baggies seeking first home goal for two months

West Bromwich Albion v Norwich City; The Hawthorns, Saturday 23rd November 2024, 3pm

The return of domestic football following the third international break of the autumn means that Championship clubs embark on four months of unbroken football with 23 fixtures, half of the season, between now and the next international break in March, eleven of which are squeezed into seven weeks ahead of the FA Cup Third Round.

The first of those sees Albion welcome Norwich City to the Hawthorns for one of those precious Saturday 3pm kick-offs. The Canaries boast the division’s top scorer in Borja Sainz, who was sent off in the first half of his last visit to the Shrine on Boxing Day last year, and were pushing for a top six spot in early October before their current run of six games without a win has seen them drop into the bottom half of the table. Their last three games have all ended in defeat with just one goal scored.

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Their poor form can be partly put down to a series of injuries that have seen first choice ‘keeper, Angus Gunn, sidelined in recent weeks along with Ashley Barnes, Onel Hernández, Marcelino Núñez and Daryl Dike’s international teammate, Josh Sargeant. Gunn, Barnes and Hernández are all expected to be available for Saturday’s match, however, according to head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup.

Danish coach, Thorup, took over at Carrow Road in the summer having only previously coached Nordsjælland in his native country, guiding them to second spot in the Superliga last season. The 35-year-old took over from David Wagner who was sacked following City’s defeat to Leeds United in the play-off semi-final in May. The jury is very much out on the young Dane for the time being.

Albion’s own winless run came to an end with victory at Hull City before the break, but the result also extended their unbeaten run to seven games. Corberán changed tactics to achieve victory by playing Karlan Grant as a second striker alongside Maja with Mikey Johnston coming in on the left side. It was a tactic that worked as the Baggies started like a train and went into a two goal lead inside 17 minutes. While the Tigers did come back into the game and may count themselves unfortunate not to come away with a point, the starting line up appeared to have generated a more attacking outlook from the off and I would expect it to be repeated on Saturday.

At the pre-match press conference, Corberán did not report any new injury concerns and Frabotta should be available once again. Kyle Bartley, however, is likely to be missing for another week.

Something will have to give in this match in terms of goals – the Baggies’ 15 games have seen just 25 goals, the lowest in the division, while spectators at Norwich’s games this season will have seen the net bulge on 45 occasions, the joint highest. The last goal scored at the Hawthorns was more than seven weeks ago on 1st October, and the last time that home fans were celebrating was on 21st September when Josh Maja’s goal was enough to beat Plymouth Argyle and send Albion to the top of the table.

Two months without a home goal to celebrate have left the Hawthorns faithful very edgy – the win at Hull will have eased some of the tension, undoubtedly, but until the goals start coming at home, it will remain a high pressure environment. City will not be easy opponents, few are in the Championship, but if Albion can repeat the quick start from the MKM Stadium, a home win should be there for the taking.

History

Albion’s defeat at Carrow Road in January is their only loss to Norwich City in the last six meetings. The Baggies have won the previous two meetings at the Hawthorns and the Canaries last won in B71 in the last top flight encounter between the sides in March 2016.

Neither squad contains a player that could face their former club on Saturday but there have been a number of notable names who have plied their trade at both the Hawthorns and Carrow Road over the years.

The most recent is Jordan Hugill who spent the 2021/22 season on loan at Albion from Norwich, scoring just once in twenty appearances. Canaries’ legend, Wes Hoolahan, who racked up over 300 appearances in ten seasons in Norfolk, spent the 2018/19 season at Albion without making much of an impact, while Jacob Murphy, who was on loan at the Hawthorns that season, had been at Norwich a couple of years earlier.

After a successful seven year spell at the Hawthorns, Yousouf Mulumbu spent two seasons with Norwich before moving north of the border. He joined Graham Dorrans at Carrow Road – the Scotsman had moved from Albion in February 2015, initially on loan, helping them to promotion to the Premier League that season. He stayed for a further two seasons before he also moved to Scotland.

John Hartson went on loan to Carrow Road from Albion in 2007 but made only four appearances while Robert Earnshaw was another striker who moved to Norfolk from Albion. Earnie left the Baggies in January 2006 and had a successful spell with the Canaries scoring 28 goals in less than 50 appearances. Leon Barnett was another player who swapped Sandwell for Norfolk, doing so in the summer of 2010.

Going back a little further, stalwart of Gary Megson’s promotion teams, Andy Johnson, had played alongside his future manager at Carrow Road having started his career with City making his debut in the old Division One at Sheffield Wednesday in April 1992. Another future Baggie in that side was Ruel Fox who became AJ’s team mate once again a decade later – both came off the bench in the 1-0 home defeat to Wimbledon in September 2001 in what was Johnson’s Albion debut. Later that season, AJ played in Albion’s 1-0 win over Norwich City at the Hawthorns – in the opposition team that day was Trevor Benjamin who was on loan from Leicester City but he would end the season on loan at Albion coming off the bench against Barnsley to score on his debut.

A couple of other well-known players who came to the Hawthorns late in their careers had spells with Norwich beforehand. Mike Phelan, who was largely ignored by Alex Ferguson when he took over at Old Trafford, had spent four seasons at Carrow Road before moving to the Red Devils and spent a couple of unspectacular seasons at Albion after leaving United in 1994. Broadcaster and Irish international, Andy Townsend, had two seasons at Carrow Road in the late eighties before moving on to Chelsea, Villa and Boro before finishing his career at the Hawthorns having been brought in by Brian Little. He lasted four games into Meggo’s tenure!

For the older readers, some other names to played for both clubs include David Cross, a striker who had three seasons at Carrow Road in the early seventies and a couple at the Hawthorns before the arrival of Ron Atkinson while John Deehan, who was signed by Atkinson from Aston Villa in 1979, moved to Norwich two years later – Deehan spent four and a half years at Carrow Road before moving across the Old Farm divide to Ipswich in the summer of 1986.

Baggies legend, Asa Hartford, had one season at Norwich in the mid-eighties, while Colin Suggett moved to Carrow Road from Albion in February 1973 to enjoy the dubious honour of playing for relegated clubs in successive seasons. He did, however, help City to promotion in 1975 as they returned to the top flight ahead of Albion.