Brummie Road Ender
·21 septembre 2024
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Yahoo sportsBrummie Road Ender
·21 septembre 2024
Carlos Corberán’s Baggies made it five wins and a draw from their opening six games with a 1-0 victory over Plymouth Argyle to make it the best league start from an Albion side since Ossie Ardiles’ team matched the achievement in 1992. No Baggies team has won the first six league games of a campaign and only two other Albion seasons have started with five wins and a draw, in 1947 and 1953. Ossie’s team, of course, won promotion via the play-offs while Vic Buckingham’s 1953/54 team would finish runners-up in the First Division. The 1947/48 season did not end as well as Albion eventually finished seventh and missed out on promotion – it would prove to be the last of the great Fred Everiss’s 46 years in charge of the team.
Josh Maja’s sixth goal of the season means that nine of Albion’s ten Championship goals have been scored by players whose surname begins with ‘M’. Maja also surpasses Lee Hughes’ start to the 1998/99 league season – Hughsie only had five from the first six league games, as did Bob Taylor in 1992/93. Both did score twice in game seven, however, so Maja needs to score at Hillsborough to keep up!
Other players to have league started a season scoring as well in an Albion shirt are true legends of the club. The last Baggie to do it was Jeff Astle who scored six in six at the beginning of the both the 1970/71 and 1965/66 campaigns, while Ronnie Allen matched that feat at the start of the 1957/58 season and Johnny Nicholls did so in 1953/54. It has been bettered, however – Ginger Richardson scored seven in the first six league matches in 1934/35 which was actually the season before he set the club record of 39 league goals in a campaign, while Jimmy Cookson scored nine in six at the start of the 1929/30 campaign and ten in the first six of the 1927/28 season, including all six in a 6-3 win over Blackpool in game six!