Table-toppers up next for Baggies as window nears its close

In partnership with

Brummie Road Ender

·29 août 2025

Table-toppers up next for Baggies as window nears its close

Stoke City v West Bromwich Albion; bet365 Stadium, Saturday 30th August 2025, 12.30pm

Albion travel to the Potteries this weekend for a lunchtime fixture against Stoke City who currently sit top of the fledgling Championship table.

Mark Robins’ side have won all three of their league fixtures this season beating Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday comfortably before an impressive 2-1 at Southampton last weekend. They did, however, lost 3-0 at home to Bradford City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening albeit with a much-changed team.

Vidéos OneFootball

Robins took over at the bet365 in January and did enough to keep City in the division, finishing 18th, but keeping the remarkable record that they have not managed to finish in the top half of the Championship since they were relegated from the Premier League in 2018. He has brought in a number of new faces over the summer including 35-year-old left back, Aaron Cresswell, from West Ham United and exciting winger, Sorba Thomas, from Huddersfield Town, who has two goals and three assists already. Another who has made an immediate impact is striker, Divin Mubama, who has joined on loan from Manchester City and has also scored twice. He was sent off at St Mary’s last week but served his suspension in midweek and will be available to play against Albion.

It will definitely be a tough test for Ryan Mason’s team with the Potters evidently full of confidence and backed by enthusiastic support, many of who see Albion as their main rivals having not played their traditional local rivals, Port Vale, for more than two decades. Mason will not be on the touchline, however, as he will be serving a one-match suspension for his reaction to the appalling refereeing performance last weekend.

While Mason, his staff and the players will have been focusing on preparations for the match, many fans will have been concentrating on what have been a busy few days in the transfer market for the club. At the time of writing, Chris Mepham has joined from Bournemouth and Alfie Gilchrist has signed from Chelsea, while Caleb Taylor has left to join Millwall and Darnell Furlong has completed a back five of ex-Albion players now plying their trade at Portman Road. All four deals seem to be financially solid from an Albion point of view, but the one potential deal that has had many dissenters amongst the fan base is one that could see Tom Fellows move to Southampton. A fee rumoured to be less than £10m has apparently been agreed between the clubs, but the player has not yet agreed terms or, it would seem, taken a medical. Indeed, Mason reported that he was at the newly named “Fitlife Foods Performance Centre” on Friday morning and would, presumably, be taking part in training. We will await developments, but I would guess the Albion hierarchy want it resolved sooner rather than later so a replacement can be sought if required before the window closes on Monday.

As for the match itself, the departure of Furlong obviously leaves Mason with a decision to make at right back. Alex Williams performed well there in the cup tie against Derby County, while he also has the option of using Bielik or Campbell – having only joined this week, I wouldn’t expect to see either Gilchrist or Mepham in the starting line up. Fellows inclusion in the squad would indicate that he is likely to stay but, if not, might we see a rare start for club captain, Jed Wallace, on the right hand side? I’m not expecting to see any other changes from the team that started against Portsmouth last weekend, but maybe Mason will spring one or two surprises.

Given City’s start to the campaign, a draw would be a decent result but, having won at the bet365 Stadium on four of their last six visits, Albion will be hopeful of taking all three points.

History

For much of my life as a Baggies fan, Stoke City were a true bogey side. I was at the match when Brian Talbot’s team thumped Mick Mills’ Potters 6-0 in December 1988 in what turned out to be the last victory over them for 15 years, but the most memorable match for me took place four years later at City’s long-demolished home, the Victoria Ground.

Those four years were amongst the worst in the history of West Bromwich Albion as they slumped into the third tier for the first time ever in 1991. The Potters were also struggling and had made the drop the year before having only spent one season at that level before then, 1926/7.

The summer of 1992 saw the surprise appointment of Ossie Ardiles as Albion’s manager and what an impact he made. From a team of sloggers under Bobby Gould, the Baggies were transformed into a Black Country version of Brazil playing beautiful passing football and it was working. After seven league games of the Division Two season (the foundation of the Premier League had renamed the divisions that summer), Albion were sitting top of the table having won six of those matches, the only blemish a 1-1 draw at Fulham. City, on the other hand, were struggling in the bottom half of the table with just one win to their name.

On the previous Tuesday evening, Bob Taylor’s brace at Burnden Park had seen off Bolton Wanderers and it was no surprise to see him open the scoring, albeit it was very much against the run of play. The hosts had dominated the opening exchanges but ‘keeper, Tony Parks, mishit a drop kick straight to Albion’s number nine and he ran through, rounded the hapless Parks, and put the visitors one up. It had little impact on the flow of the game, however, as Lou Macari’s side continued to pepper the Albion goal and were deservedly level on the stroke of half time; Steve Foley benefited from a deflection that put him through on goal and he calmy clipped the ball over the advancing Stuart Naylor.

It got worse for Albion in the first minute after the break when Kevin Russell hammered home after good work from Mark Stein created havoc in the centre of the Baggies defence. It was an end-to-end match during the second half with both sides having good chances, but it was the visitors who struck next when Bob Taylor scored his second with a stooping header to finish off a cross from Wayne Fereday. Three minutes later, Simon Garner lashed in a shot from the corner of the box beating Parks at his near post and Albion were back in front. But within minutes, the hosts were level once again as Kevin Russell scored his second of the game having been put through by Stein. With seven minutes to go, Ian Cranson headed home from a corner to put the hosts ahead once again which proved enough to secure the points and inflict a first league defeat of the season on Ardiles’ team.

It was the start of the something special for Lou Macari’s team as they rocketed up the table and ended up winning the title. Ardiles’ team remained in contention throughout but, while their entertaining style was not quite solid enough to claim an automatic spot, they would have their day at Wembley to beat City’s local rivals, Port Vale, in the play-off final.