Baggies look to end difficult week on a high

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·17 de enero de 2025

Baggies look to end difficult week on a high

West Bromwich Albion v Stoke City; The Hawthorns, Saturday 18th January 2025, 3pm

It’s been a tough week for West Bromwich Albion, but it looks like it could end with the return of a popular manager and a fourth straight home win against Stoke City on Saturday would cap things off very nicely.

We had all expected that the win over Preston North End on New Year’s Day would be Chris Brunt’s only home game in charge of the first team and, as the Albion faithful travelled to Bournemouth last weekend, the announcement of Austrian Raphaël Wicky as the club’s new Head Coach was all but confirmed. As it transpired, while Wicky was keen on the job, his preferred assistant was not and the deal fell through with the suggestion that it was the club who pulled the plug. Visa issues for Wicky’s goalkeeping coach muddied the waters but were not, reportedly, a major factor. Ultimately, it was something of a PR disaster but it looks as though it might all turn out OK in the end.

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Reports suggest that former boss, Tony Mowbray, was on the club’s original short list but the man himself was unwilling to commit until he had been given the all clear by his medical team following his recovery from bowel cancer. In an interview with another Middlesbrough legend, Bernie Slaven, released on Tuesday, Mowbray suggested that was imminent as well as providing a fascinating insight into his views on modern football, and the news emerging on Thursday and Friday this week indicates that he is raring to go on an the verge of agreeing a deal to return to the Hawthorns.

For those of us who watched Tony Mowbray’s Albion team between 2006 and 2009, it is difficult not to be excited about the prospect of his return. The team that won the Championship title in 2008 may have done so with a record low number of points, but they were a joy to watch scoring 109 goals in all competitions during the campaign, 16 of which came in a thrilling run to the FA Cup semi-final, and earned Mowbray the LMA Manager of the Year award.

He is one of only four managers to have left the Hawthorns this century without being sacked, Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Carlos Corberán being the other three, and while his achievement in guiding Blackburn Rovers to promotion from League One in 2018 is his only real success since leaving the Hawthorns, his record in the Championship remains strong guiding Sunderland to a 6th place finish in their first season following promotion in 2023 off the back of an 8th-place finish with Blackburn Rovers the year before. He has managed 870 games in England and Scotland and has an overall win percentage of 41%, certainly not to be sniffed at.

Some may consider the appointment, still to be confirmed at the time of writing, to be sentimental or something of a backward step, but he remains a very good coach and will be largely popular with the fanbase as well as being a genuinely decent human being. Furthermore, in Chris Brunt he has a man he knows well, having signed him for the club back in 2007, who will inevitably help him settle back into the club quickly and with valuable insight on the existing playing squad. For me, it’s something of a no-brainer.

While the off-field shenanigans have dominated the headlines, news of an injury to top scorer, Josh Maja, cannot be overshadowed. Not only has Albion’s number nine scored more than a third of their league goals this season, his link-up play has been crucial to the Baggies’ attacking play throughout the campaign and his absence for “several weeks” is undoubtedly a major blow.

Maja is one of only three Albion players to have started every Championship game this season (Palmer and Heggem being the other two), and it will take a tactical change to cope without him. With Daryl Dike still not ready to return to action, it is something of a blessing that Karlan Grant is having such a good season and he is the obvious candidate to lead the line, but his game is very different to Maja’s. Grant will run in behind rather than drop deep to link up, so we may well see John Swift or Grady Diangana in the number ten position to provide that creativity. Devante Cole shouldn’t be ignored, of course, but his only start for Albion came in the 2-1 League Cup defeat at Fleetwood Town and he is yet to find the net in Baggies colours. It can be difficult to make an impact off the bench, of course, and perhaps we may see more from Cole if he were to start, but it would be a surprise for him to be given the opportunity.

My expectation is that Fellows and Johnston will be on the wings with Grant as the central striker and Swift in behind. Two from Molumby, Diakité and Mowatt will in the middle behind Swift while Furlong is likely to line up alongside three from Heggem, Bartley, Holgate and Styles.

New Stoke City boss, Mark Robins, has his own striking issues to contend with after top scorer, Tom Cannon, was recalled by parent club, Leicester City. The former Coventry City boss was appointed on New Year’s Day and is so far undefeated at the Potters having drawn his opening game at home to Plymouth Argyle before a surprise 2-1 extra-time win at Sunderland in the FA Cup last weekend.

City are actually unbeaten since the dismissal of former boss, Narcís Pèlach, who had only been in charge since September after replacing Steven Schumacher, who had also been sacked. Ryan Shawcross had taken charge of the team for the two games before Robins’ appointment, winning one and drawing one, and he has now been confirmed as a member of the backroom staff.

This is a game that Albion should be winning if they hope to maintain their play-off push. Blackburn’s victory in their game in hand in midweek has pushed the Baggies out of the top six, but they are still very much in the mix while Stoke are in 19th spot just four points above the bottom three. However, the absence of Maja and Stoke’s recent uptick in form should not be ignored and it is unlikely to be a straightforward victory.

Three points would be a huge boost ahead of the tricky trip to Boro on Tuesday, as would a confirmation of Mowbray’s return. And then the final two weeks of the transfer window to look forward to with Albion in need of reinforcements.

History

Club history buffs will know that Stoke (no “City” in those days) were Albion’s first league opponents back in September 1888 and, on Saturday, they will become just the third club to have played 150 league matches against the Baggies. Everton, also a Founder Member of the Football League, are Albion’s most frequent league opposition with 158 encounters while Sunderland’s visit to the Hawthorns in April will also bring them to 158 league matches despite them having not joined the Football League until 1890. For the record, Aston Villa are Albion’s most frequent opponent in all major competitions with 168 meetings but only 148 of them have been in the Football League or Premier League, although that doesn’t include the two play-off matches from 2019.

The Potters’ period as Albion’s definitive bogey side lasted for more than 25 years and came to an end when Tony Pulis rocked up at the Hawthorns in January 2015. After the Baggies’ 6-0 over City in December 1988, the two sides met 36 times until the man from Newport crossed the divide with Albion winning just three times and only ten ending all square. Since then, the Baggies have had the edge winning ten of the nineteen meetings and losing five.

That home win in December 1988 was not the first time that Albion had scored six against Stoke City at the Hawthorns, that had come more than twenty years earlier in September 1965. What is perhaps more remarkable about that match is that the Baggies scored six with Jeff Astle starting the game and the King didn’t get on the scoresheet!

Former Baggie, Maurice “Hurricane” Setters was on something of a warpath on his return to the Hawthorns and, while he left a physical mark on a few of the Albion players that day, the only mark he left on the scoresheet was on the wrong side – he deflected in a Tony Brown shot for the opener before John Kaye headed in Astle’s cross to put the hosts 2-0 up. Setters was involved again when he brought down Clive Clark in the box setting up a spot kick that Bobby Cram converted for a 3-0 lead, before he made an impact at the right end when his counter attack set up Roy Vernon to reduce the arrears before the break. Early in the second half, a quick fire double from Tony Brown and John Kaye put Albion virtually out of sight although Peter Dobing made it 5-2 on the hour mark, with the ever-influential Maurice Setters providing the assist. He continue to battle hard, with a clash between him and Graham Williams described as “fearful” by Birmingham Daily Post writer, Cyril Chapman, but John Kaye completed his hat trick inside the last 20 minutes to make the final score 6-2.